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Vernon God Little: a 21st century comedy in the presence of death

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It is indeed satire, but of the broadest and bluntest kind, the kind deployed by the teenager in the schoolyard who thinks it's clever to say the f-word. Vernon Little owes a debt to Salinger's Holden Caulfield, and like Holden his voice is loud and clear -the book's greatest strength. But, like Michael Moore (who, Camille Paglia has said, gives liberalism a bad name), his targets are too soft, his weapons too coarse." - Erica Wagner, The Times We publish a Literature Newsletter when we have news and features on UK and international literature, plus opportunities for the industry to share. If I have to make a comparisons, I can compare this novel to 'Wonderboys' by Michael Chabon. Both stories are messy, while Chabon's can be considered as a civilized novel. This novel can also be compared to Arundhati Roy's "The God of Small Things" (no, not because both have the word 'God' in their titles), for its inventive, flexible, experimental use of English words/phrases, while Roy's can be considered as a contemplative one and Pierre's as a not serious one. Pierre was awarded the Booker Prize for fiction on 14 October 2003 for his novel Vernon God Little.

Observer review: Vernon God Little by DBC Pierre | Fiction

Vernon's mother's best friend, Palmyra, is the only woman in their circle so fat that she makes Mrs Little feel good about herself: 'Mom's other friends are slimmer. They're not her best friends.' Acerbic notes like this are funny but isolating; because Vern's voice is so strong, so unanswerable, there is no room for a second opinion, for Eulalio Ledesma, or Vaine Gurie, or Oliver Goosens, or any of the other improbably named and ultimately rather pathetic characters to tell their side of the story. Least of all do we hear from Vern's dead best friend, Jesus. As I said it could all be mildly entertaining but then DBC Pierre inserts those serious bits, because, you know, Vernon’s friends have all been shot and he is accused of murdering them and facing Death Row, and then DBC Pierre expects me to empathise, which is as preposterous as if South Park creators expected me to cry each time they kill Kenny. An unexpectedly moving first novel ... Raucous and brooding, coarse and lyric, corrosive and sentimental in about equal measure. My family planted the idea that I could do anything, and I want to apologise for taking them so literally"Doris Eleanor Little . . .' Barbecue sauce drips onto her name badge. Deputy Vaine Gurie it says underneath. 'And you're fifteen years old? Awkward age.' Mom's best friend is called Palmyra. Everybody calls her Pam. She's fatter than Mom, so Mom feels good around her. Mom's other friends are slimmer. They're not her best friends." The closest I can get is to say it's like 'Catcher In The Rye' if it had been written by Warren Ellis. I really didn't like this book at all, but I have to admit that it captures the spirit of America in an unpleasantly accurate way. Vulgar, frustrating, and sad in a farcical way, it shows the kind of (anti-)culture that created the nationwide mess that is now evident to the whole world, and for which the whole world may have to pay. I try to think where those people are. But the memory doesn't come to my brain, it comes to my eye as a tear that shoots from my lash like a soggy bullet. I sit stunned.

Vernon God Little by D.B.C. Pierre | Goodreads

The language is extremely vivid, most inventive, it's extremely exciting and very funny," he added. The life of Vernon Little, a normal teenager who lives in Martirio, Texas, falls apart when his best friend, Jesus Navarro, murders their classmates in the schoolyard before killing himself, and Vernon is taken in for questioning. Theodore Dalrymple wrote that the novel "was a work of unutterably tedious nastiness and vulgarity" that "manifested itself even in its first sentence, and grew worse as the first paragraph progressed"; Dalrymple described the author as "a man with no discernible literary talent whose vulgarity of mind was deep and thoroughgoing". [3] In The New York Times, Michiko Kakutani concluded that "In trying to score a lot of obvious points off a lot of obvious targets, Mr. Pierre may have won the Booker Prize and ratified some ugly stereotypes of Americans, but he hasn't written a terribly convincing or compelling novel." [4] Film, TV or theatrical adaptations [ edit ] Ronder's adaptation and the Young Vic production was nominated for the Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Play. The play was published in 2007, and a revised version was published in 2011. [8] I'd quote more, but I'd only be able to give you "and" and "the." Indeed, British critics have gone wild over the book's "authentic voice," by which they mean the way Little speaks exclusively in terms of copulation, waste, or female body parts.He goes on to recount his nightmarish, Kafkaesque experience (as he is later accused, charged and found guilty of murder) with the tone and insight that mostly befits his age and outsider status. What tends to pass for normal in the 21st century is described in grotesque terms as Vernon’s fate is manipulated by the media and justice system. This use of exaggeration and caricature to criticise the greed inherent in a capitalist society also colours Pierre’s second novel, Ludmila’s Broken English (2006), which has previously conjoined twins, Gordon-Marie (who is also known as Bunny) and Blair Heath, as two of its main characters. The 42-year-old writer is the third Australian to win the prize - now in its 35th year - following in the footsteps of Peter Carey and Thomas Keneally.

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