All the reviewers quoted on the jacket of this book described it as "funny" or "hilarious", which I think is a misinterpretation. Certainly, there are elements of comedy in the book, but overall it's quite a bleak story about an adolescent in Ireland, and the various relationships he has with the people around him. Unfortunately, I can't discuss it too much here without giving away important details which might spoil it for other readers. Suffice it to say that it wasn't predictable. I'm still a bit confused as to in what order the events occured, not that that matters perhaps.

This book was surprisingly good, and very deep as it describes the life of the main character, so that it makes you think about why he acts as he does, etc. It is also very clever in that it only tells the story through the eyes of one person, so you see the world as he does until you realise that other people might see it differently, in particular his girlfriend, which makes you wonder how the other characters see things, and so on. I agree with Stemonitis that the reviews on the book are misleading- just because it is written by a comedian does not mean it is a funny book, and it is actually a cleverly written and insightful book. Shall be passed on in Vienna.

Finally there are some nice english books at the meet-up :-))

Bad for me, because I promised myself, not to take any books home with me, but I never can resist if the story takes place in Ireland! :-)

Released on Friday, July 09, 2004 at TNEB "The Next English Bookbox" in Wien, Austria Controlled Releases.

Bookbox

Taken out of TNEB

RELEASE NOTES:

enjoy!

Arrived today, thanks very much Geegal. Looking forward to reading it.