I had no desire to read Vernon God Little it sounded depressing as fuck! (And yes, some fucking can be depressing, right Monica?) Anyhoo, the book is about the aftermath of a mass student slaying at a High School in Texas, now this doesn't sound entertaining at all until you actually pick up the book and read it. If you were to take one part Catcher in the Rye, one part Confederacy Of Dunces and one part South Park with just a dash of Huckleberry Finn you'd have DBC Pierre's Man Booker Prize winner Vernon God Little.
The story is narrated by Vernon Gregory Little a fifteen year old with Nike Jordan New Jack tennis shoes and that's the good part of his daily grind, unfortunately he is the suspected accomplice to the murder of 16 fellow classmates, thing is the boy was just taking a shit, outside, but with teachers note in hand (the future toilet paper) and while releasing his unpredictable bowels, he witnesses his best friend snapping like a twig and shooting up the student body. What? Doesn't sound funny? Trust me, it is brilliantly funny, smart and heartbreaking. The characters abuse 'protein diets', Vernon's mother ends up humping on one of the reporters camped in their front yard and Vernon makes way to Mexico to escape the unbelievable reality not of his doing.
I finished this book in 4 days, I loved it and glad that my associate Andy recommended it, actually I just think he tired of hearing me bitch about the book I had been reading prior to Vernon. I made the attempt to read the 'Christian' Harry Potter wannabe, Shawdowmancer. It's a preachy tale that holds little magic or imagination and ironically a golden statue, because as we know the Christian faith loves some false idols??? Uh, yeah....so um, the Vicar in the book is a fucker, and while one of the adventurers is being held prisoner in a pagan hold, he tells the captured and the guard that tarot and fortune telling is evil and not God's work, mmmkay...and then he heals the deaf mute as a good will gesture. At one point the kids are being chased by the terrible Wiccaman, then another 'healing' of sorts.....ack. I didn't care for it all, the book gave me a bloody headache and I've yet to read the ending, but I'm certain it will be a 'happy ending' after all, God is gracious like that.
The last two books I read prior to the above were The Pleasure Of My Company, by Steve Martin (brilliant and funny) and Jennifer Government by Max Barry, were both very fulfilling and fun reads. Martin's books main character has a wee bit of OCD which I totally related to, and Barry's main character Jennifer has a product scan label tattooed on her cheek and fights crime when paid by the victim or the victims family and that's how things work in the future. You take the company name you work for as your surname in the future and you have alliances to business' for better discounts, some call it loyalty programming, I call it Guerilla Capitalism. In the Pleasure of My Company, the main character goes jogging in his khakis and loafers and has issues with curbs, in Jennifer Government, Nike makes some kick ass over-priced, over-hyped tennis shoes,(likened to Vernon G. Littles, Jordan New Jacks). In order to give the tennis shoes street cred and charge $1500 a pair, Nike assigns an assassination task to an employee low on the Nike totem and all hell breaks lose. Jennifer Government is scary because we are so very close to that very future, but its fucking hysterical as well, because it all starts with frequent flyer miles (gotsta git dem milez). I highly recommend both books and if you want to play in the World of Jennifer Government you can play the game, make your own nation here.
And finally, it was decided over a multitude of margurita's and mexican food with my friend Laura that my next book to conquer will be Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs. She enthusiastically recommended I read all of Burroughs limited title selection, but after a few margurita's one could easily suggest reading The Bible with the same vigor. I already owned the book so I guess I'll read that next! Alrighty, that's your book spew for now, have at it.
