Vernon God Little - Softcover

DBC Pierre; Adapted By Tanya Ronder

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1854599844 ISBN 13: 9781854599841

Publisher: Nick Hern Books, 2007

Synopsis

Rare book

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:

"'This is Irish lyricism as you have never heard it before... In this outstanding new play, Mark O'Rowe... confronts us with two fiercely urban, contemporary low-life lads, talking a new dramatic language' Daily Telegraph 'A tragedy played out as scabrous high comedy' Guardian 'Vividly horrible and horribly funny' Evening Standard"

About this edition

• Publisher: Nick Hern Books
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 1854599844
• ISBN 13: 9781854599841
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 96