Author's product rating: 
| Advantages: |
Incredibly funny, easy to read book written in a very accessible style . |
| Disadvantages: |
Laughing our loud on buses and trains is not to be recommended ! Found in travel section at my local bookshop, not comedy . |
| Recommend to potential buyers: |
yes |
Are You Dave Gorman?, by Dave Gorman and Danny Wallace, isn't so much a travelogue as a Quest (with a capital Q) and a tale of just what boys will get up to when a) bored and b) given half a chance (and some tequila). You will, however, find it in the travel section of your local bookshop.
The basic premise is simple. Perrier-award nominated comedian, storyteller and writer Dave Gorman wants to meet loads of other Dave Gormans. Mind you, it's not *his* fault, flatmate writer and journalist Danny Wallace has a fairly large say in the matter.
"Why, you may well ask, when I was now starting to regret ever having met even the Dave Gorman sitting opposite me, did I now decide that, yes, 54 would be a good number of others to meet?"
The answer to this question is, perhaps, not wholly unexpected. It does, of course, involve a wee tipple (the aforementioned tequila) on the part of both our protagonists. Facing the age-old problem of not knowing when to back down, Dave and Danny set off to meet a Dave Gorman for every card in the pack - including the jokers. That, apparently, officially counts as "loads".
The book is written from the points of view of both Dave and Danny, differentiated by a bold typeface for Dave's comments. The way this is introduced is as quirky and amusing as the rest of the book:
[bold font]
"Hello. My name's Dave Gorman.
Throughout this book, I'll be writing in this bold, rather confident typeface.
[normal font]
Hello. My name's Danny Wallace. And I'll be writing in this relaxed, more elegant font."
This makes it easy to read and helps the story along, as you get two opinions on the same situation in many places. The length of writing from any one person varies from as little as a couple of words to as much as a couple of pages.
The style of writing varies too, with Dave coming across as exuberent, excitable and (possibly) slightly bonkers. Danny, on the other hand, writes as if he can't quite believe what he's got himself into, worrying about the future of his relationship with the long suffering Hanne. He is correspondingly surly at many points. The tone also changes as the book progresses, as Danny gets caught up in the challenge and Dave gets depressed by his lack of progress.
Both Danny and Dave are gifted storytellers, and both were responsible for many laugh-out-loud moments as I was reading this. Their writing is full of wit, humour and gentle mickey-taking but both cut to the essence of the people they meet - mainly Dave Gormans, but there are some others along the way too.
It's the sort of book where you just can't resist reading chunks of it out loud to your nearest and dearest, only for them to give you slightly bemused looks as you giggle along helplessly.
Although the conclusion of the Dave Gorman Quest is not a surprise, the events that happen along the way are. After all, this one tale has been a TV series, best selling book and stage show. Between their first encounters in Fife (with Dave Gorman (DG) 1 and DG2) and the last, in Jersey (DG54), Dave and Danny travel over 25,000 miles, visiting places as far afield as Italy, France, America, Dunstable and Tooting. They get caught in a tornado in New York, lose their shoes but find some classy t-shirts in Norway and cause a security alert in Israel. Oh, and manage to freak out the majority of DGs that they contact or meet.
In the centre pages of the book, you can see just how freaked out the DGs were. The original DG has pictures of every single one of them. Moreover, hours of fun seems to have been had captioning the pictures: "Dave Gorman (left) meets Dave Gorman (right)" is a fairly representative sample.
In short it's silly, pointless, a waste of both time and money. But it's also an irreverent, extremely funny travelogue-meets-quest story of how two men can take on the world, and win. If you like Bill Bryson's travel books, or those written by Tony Hawks, then you'll like this. Promise. D'you wanna bet?
Oh, and it's got a cover that's a parody of the kids classic game Guess Who? Cool or what? :o)
Further information:
Published by Ebury Press in 2001, the book runs to 384 pages and its cover
price is £9.99.
It won the WHSmith Book Award in 2002, and has since been followed by Dave Gorman's Googlewhack Adventure, by Dave Gorman, and Join Me, by Danny Wallace.
Amazon have it available for £5.59 at the time of writing, cheaper through their marketplace service.
Some of my ratings that Ciao make me complete don't necessarily apply, it certainly isn't your average travel book - best read as fiction rather than a guide to travelling. Well, unless you're looking for Dave Gormans too?
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