Jul 16, 2004 03:28 PM
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(Updated Jul 16, 2004 03:28 PM)
Coming off the back of a few crappy reads (self inflicted tortures like Danielle Steel, why oh why!) DBC Pierre’s Vernon God Little was a compelling read. Luckily the hype surrounding the book was offset by a review or two on Mouthshut which did not quite give the book a thumbs up.
For me however, the book was a rollicking great read that managed to even wring out a tear or two. (There - I had to go and put that right at the beginning – now, what’s left to write?)
Merely that the book reminded me a lot of Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha, another favourite Booker winner. Especially the voices of the juvenile protagonists, the humour and the rough and ready colloquial usages. It did not remind me quite so much of The Catcher In The Rye, which I read dutifully as a rite of passage. At the risk of being whacked by Holden Caulfield fans – I found that particular book vastly overrated and the baseball hatted hero with all his existential angst and dismay over phoniness, a trifle phony himself.
Unlike Holden, Vernon Gregory Little does have a concrete problem – he’s been wrongly accused of being a conspirator in the suicide-murder shooting of his classmates. I don’t want to sound like a book jacket synopsis, but Vernon God Little truly is a sneaky and humorous indictment of the society of a certain country. Set in small town America, Vernon, the teenage hero, is not one of the popular guys in class, especially cos he chooses to befriend someone no one else likes. After the murder, Vernon is virtually the only survivor. Things go out of control as the affair becomes a media circus that convinces everyone of Vernon’s guilt, leading to his trial, a guilty verdict and finally imprisonment and death row. Right to the end, you have no clue about how the book is going to go.
Maybe I happened to read this book at the right juncture in my life. Not that I am accused of murder or on death row, but there are times when I do feel I am on trial.
What I liked
- Two pages into the book and I was marveling over DBC Pierre’s gift for description and way with words.
“Normal times just ran howling from town”
“Her features huddle in the middle of her face”
Or about his mother “Covers me with spit and lipstick and f knows what else – placenta probably.”
I loved the way he referred to emotional blackmail as ‘a knife in the back’ that people twist and tweak regularly for maximum effect.
The way in which the spectacle of death row and Vernon’s imprisonment is turned into a reality TV show – that was brilliant and the way things are headed, it’s a distinct possibility.
How Vernon, teenage purveyor of pornography, is nevertheless man and chivalrous enough to turn away from the drunk Taylor – a sentimental touch perhaps, but effective.
Vernon might crib about his mother and the knife she sticks in his back, but DBC Pierre captures the essential contradiction in all of us – because Vernon is equally pissed when his mother leaves him to his own devices.
What didn’t impress me
The ending. It could have been worked on. Right now it smacks of a Hollywood fantasy.
I could say the language and toilet humour put me off, but to be honest, it didn’t really. There’s a hell of a lot of difference between bad language and perversion and Vernon God Little never errs towards the latter.
To close, a ‘learning’ from Vernon:
“Only the dumb are safe in this world: the ones who roam this world without thinking about everything.”
Now, doesn’t that remind you of a certain somebody from Texas?
