From the torrent of praise for this book both in the press, on the radio and inside the front cover, I was expecting a comic tour de force, to get a strangulated hernia from laughing too much and to have used up an entire box of tissues wiping my streaming eyes. However, what I found was a passable, entertaining and mildly amusing account of a sad individual who had done nothing of great note throughout his life. A likeable enough sort, but not great material for a novel. The story starts with him enumerating his top five split ups of all time and continues in a similarly "new-laddish" frame throughout the remaining pages. Maybe it's just that I too lead such a sad and uninteresting life and found myself identifying with the protagonist (although he is hardly that) too much (after all, here I am on a sunny Sunday afternoon, indoors, typing away on what I think of this novel and broadcasting my vapid opinions to the world through the ultimate nerd medium, the web), but I laughed at very few points in the book and those mostly right at the end and possibly in relief.

All I'll say is that if the reviewers "have never laughed so much", then they obviously have never read any Bill Bryson, who for my money is a far sharper and wittier observer of human nature.

Ben gives it:

Price: £5.99
Published by: Indigo (ISBN 0-575-40018-8)

last updated: 15th September 1996