Blast From The Past - Hardcover

Elton, Ben

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0593044142 ISBN 13: 9780593044148

Publisher: Bantam Press, 1998

Synopsis

It's two fifteen a.m., you're in bed alone and you're woken by the phone. Your eyes are wide and your body tense before it has completed so much as a single ring. And as you wake, in the tiny moment between sleep and consciousness, you know already that something is wrong. Only someone bad would call at such an hour. Or someone good, but with bad news, which would probably be worse. You lie there in the darkness and wait for the answer machine to kick in. Your own voice sounds strange as it tells you that nobody is there but that a message can be left. You feel your heart beat. You listen. And then you hear the one voice in the world you least expect . . . your very own Blast From the Past.

About this title

Review

It's 2.15 a.m. and the phone wakes you. Only someone bad would ring you at such an hour, or someone with bad news, which would probably be worse. You hear the answer-machine kick in and feel your heart beat. You listen. And then you hear the voice you least expect - a blast from the past."

Blast From The Past is the fifth novel from Ben Elton, the celebrated and controversial comedian/playwright/author whose TV credits include The Young Ones and Blackadder as well as the previous novels Stark and Popcorn. Jack Kent, US Captain stationed at Greenham Common during the early eighties, has a secret and unlikely affair with the Polly Sacred Cycle of the Womb and Moon, a 17-year-old ideological peace protester:

the star-crossed lovers made Romeo and Juliet look like an arranged marriage! Pamela Anderson and the Ayatollah Khomeni would have made a more natural-looking couple.

Sixteen years later and a four star General, Kent returns to Britain to seek out his only true love. Polly, now a lonely thirtysomething Equal Opportunities employee, is being stalked by the Bug when the phone rings.

Set in the staid, politically-correct nineties of New Labour Britain, the story flashes back with comic effect to the early eighties, a time of protest, strikes and Cold War. While hardcore Elton fans might be disappointed with the weak plot and smaller helpings of piercing wit and wacky socio-political observations, Blast from the Past still offers up some laugh-out-loud lines and entertaining reading. --Andrew Crawford

Review

Praise from the UK for "Blast from the Past: " " The action is tight and well-plotted, the dialogue is punchy, and the whole thing rolls along so nicely." --"The Guardian" " Ben Elton's in top form with this gripping black comedy--a sure-fire hit." --"New Woman" " A lively thriller of sexual politics and morality. Elton's best book yet." --"Elle" " Blast from the Past is Elton at his most outrageously entertaining." --"Cosmopolitan" Praise from the UK for "Blast from the Past: "The action is tight and well-plotted, the dialogue is punchy, and the whole thing rolls along so nicely."--"The Guardian "Ben Elton's in top form with this gripping black comedy--a sure-fire hit."--"New Woman "A lively thriller of sexual politics and morality. Elton's best book yet."--"Elle "Blast from the Past is Elton at his most outrageously entertaining."--"Cosmopolitan

About this edition

• Publisher: Bantam Press
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0593044142
• ISBN 13: 9780593044148
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 272