Vernon God Little - Hardcover

Pierre, DBC

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0571215157 ISBN 13: 9780571215157

Publisher: Faber & Faber, 2003

Synopsis

Fifteen-year-old Vernon Gregory Little is in trouble. And it has something to do with the recent massacre of 16 students at his high school. Soon the quirky backwater of Martirio, barbecue capital of Texas, is flooded with wannabe CNN hacks keen to lay the blame at Vernon's feet. Eulalio Ledesma, in particular, sniffs out his opportunity to make good at Vernon's expense. As the net tightens and desire for a scapegoat reaches fever-pitch, Vernon decides to leave town for Mexico and a date - or so he hopes - with the divine Taylor Figueroa. Peopled by a cast of freaks, obese law-enforcement officers and cold-blooded chattering housewives, Vernon God Little is a riotous adventure story that cuts a swathe through the heart of contemporary America.

About this title

Review:

If there's any justice, it is only a matter of time before the work of the curiously-named DBC Pierre becomes essential reading for anyone interested in cutting-edge writing today. Vernon God Little is a book that has a totally individual (and very quirky) identity, from a writer with a finger on the pulse of contemporary society (particularly its less comfortable aspects). Pierre is also a satirical writer in the vein of such talents as Terry Southern, and there is a manic quality to his work that makes the experience of reading him both disorienting and exhilarating. As a first novel, this is a remarkable achievement.

Teenager Vernon Gregory Little's life has been changed by the Columbine-style slaughter of a group of students at his high school. Soon his hole-in-the-wall town is blanketed under a media siege, and Vernon finds himself blamed for the killing (rather than the real culprit, a friend of Vernon's). Eulalio Ledesma is his particular nemesis, manipulating things so that Vernon becomes the fulcrum for the bizarre and vengeful impulses of the townspeople of Martirio. After a truly surrealistic set of events, Vernon finds himself heading for a fateful assignation in Mexico with the delectable Taylor Figueros (everyone in the book has names as odd as the author's).

By setting his novel in the barbecue-sauce capital of Central Texas, Pierre ensures that his narrative is going to be some distance from naturalistic writing. And as a scalpel-like satirical incision into the mores of contemporary America, reality TV and media hysteria, Vernon God Little often reads like a fractured modern-day take on such novels as John Kennedy Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces. --Barry Forshaw

Review:

'Funny and breathtakingly stroppy.' -- I-D Magazine, 1 February 2003

'Part satire, part pathos, Vernon God Little engages on all levels - intellectual, visceral, emotional, comedic ... A remarkable first novel.' -- Uncut, Book of the Month, February 1 2003

'Raw and vital, this novel, as Vernon so righteously says, 'fucken rocks'.' -- Elle Magazine 1 February 2003

'Read Vernon God Little not only for its dangerous relevance, but for the coruscating wit and raw vitality of its voice...' -- Jonathan Lethem

'Thanks to his sharp send-up of contemporary America ... DBC Pierre ... is rightly named as the US's [sic] latest literary wunderkind.' -- GQ Magazine, January 1 2003

'You know what this terrific book is like? It's like The Osbournes invited The Simpsons round for a root beer, and Don DeLillo dropped by to write a new song for Eminem.' -- Andrew O'Hagan

About this edition

• Publisher: Faber & Faber
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0571215157
• ISBN 13: 9780571215157
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288