Chris Walter: 38 books

Chris Walter writes like a man on death row, with nothing to lose, and East Van is his finest moment. A classic tale of addiction and greed that makes Trainspotting look like Chicken Soup for the Soul, this is one book you do not want to miss. “A broken bottle on the sidewalk reflected sunlight, splintering...

Drunks, punks, junkies, and whores: these are Chris Walter's people and he portrays them with empathy and humour. The characters in this collection of short stories have much in common with each other, but more than anything else, they are real enough to stumble over and piss on your shoe. So laugh when...

Chris Walter doing what he does best — a rowdy, frantic tale of madness and booze Old man Hendrickson is relatively happy until two crazy whores teeter into his life and complicate everything all to hell. Faster than a beer can roll off a porch, he has pantyhose draped over his shower curtain and tampons...

This third and final part to the I Was a Punk Before You Were a Punk trilogy begins in a Winnipeg jail cell in 1984 and ends twenty-years later in Vancouver. This first hand account of the punk lifestyle is brutally honest, devastatingly funny, and at times, emotionally chilling. Although not for the...

Up and Down on the Downtown Eastside is a fast-paced but harsh story involving drug addicts and other low income residents in the ghetto that is Vancouver's drug-ravaged Downtown Eastside. Fans of Irvine Welsh and Hunter S Thompson will appreciate the non-stop black humour that prevents the book from...

Punch the Boss is a semi-autobiographical account of various menial jobs and obnoxious bosses endured by the author. From short-order cook, ditch digger, factory worker, and drywaller, Chris tried his hand unsuccessfully at many backbreaking and low paying jobs, learning the hard way that high school...

In 1982, five brave but foolish young men traded the safety and boredom of suburbia for a brutal regimen of greasy food, endless touring, shaky gear, dingy bars, too much booze, and violent fans. While SNFU did not immediately seem like obvious candidates for punk rock stardom, they quickly rose up to...

Written in disturbingly candid tones, this prequel to I Was a Punk Before You Were a Punk tells the story of a disillusioned young man growing up in the wasteland of Winnipeg, Manitoba. As the protagonist quickly learns, substances are a primary source of entertainment in ice-locked Manitoba, and that...

This collection of tales harvested from tattoo shops across North America is wild enough to make the saltiest sea dog squirm with horror and delight. From mild-mannered kindergarten teachers to outlaw bikers and criminals headed off to prison, each customer brings something special to the shop, and no...

The Real McKenzies were the first group to wed traditional Celtic folk music with the ferocious roar of punk rock, and this is their booze-fueled story. Formed in Vancouver, Canada in 1992, the scrappy Canadians broke all the rules, placing bagpipes and tin whistles alongside supercharged guitars and...

DOA exploded on the ‘80s music scene like a sonic hand grenade. The bastard son immediately spawned hordes of new bands, and the angry kids burst forth from the suburbs, pawnshop amplifiers cranked to an ear-splitting and pain-inducing volume. Hardcore was here. Eighteen-year-old Randy Rampage helped...

The year is 1981 and the dangerous phenomenon known as hardcore punk rock has arrived in Winnipeg with a bang. The new bands, with names like Personality Crisis, The Unwanted, and the Stretch Marks, are an aggressive and rowdy bunch who vow to smash things up at all cost. What could possibly be better...

When a group of misfits opens a punk boozecan on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, they fully expect to sit back and drink beer with no worries. Life is ideal, and there are no problems with local gangbangers or outlaw motorcycle club members. Well, almost none. “I’d forgotten about the quality of...

Populated with unforgettable characters such as a corpselike hitman plagued with OCD, a death metal bassist in serious need of anger management, and an extremely unlucky drug addict, Chase the Dragon is so wickedly entertaining that adjectives such as “crazed, “outrageous,” and “savage,” fail...