Author's product rating: 
| Advantages: |
An honest and thought provoking book . Very well written . |
| Disadvantages: |
Very controversial and totally unsuitable for children . |
| Recommend to potential buyers: |
yes |
Shock horror He did it again! This is my favourite Ben Elton Book (and I've read a few). I just love his bare faced honesty. He doesn't seem to care at all about controversy and if people may be offended by what he writes. He thinks these things so he writes these things and I wish other authors could grow a spine and do the same. This is the first one of his books I read and I have been hooked ever since.
Anyway onto the book itself. The story is about drugs, users, politics, the government itself with all its stupidity and the law. The main subject is drugs but Elton has incorporated these other issues to get the reader thinking around the subject. Each issue is a separate story line. This may sound confusing but it really isn't at all. Each story is easily followed and each character and stage of events is memorable enough to make the book pretty easy to read. It's not one of those books that you need a dictionary to understand. It was written to be accessible to most readers. Your average 12 year old could cope with this but I wouldn't really recommend it due to its content. Although the use of drugs is not promoted at all, the main aim of the book is to get us thinking about how we are going to control drugs. It's blatantly obvious that at the rate we are going now, we will never win "the war against drugs". In fact I'm sure that it will never end. Elton is giving us another option to think about.
Without giving too much away I will tell you a little about the main characters and their roles.
Tommy Hanson, Pop star. Now this guy reminds me of Robbie Williams. He has that "I just don't give a damn" attitude with the "nice guy underneath it all" thing going on. He is the first character you meet and this is probably why he is so identifiable. You are reading his story through an AA meeting. Basically he is confessing all, telling his story. The drugs the alcoholism, the lifestyle, the highs and lows of being a famous pop star.
Peter Padget. Politician. This is my favourite character. He is some sort of Labour Back Bencher. He is your typical family man and respected MP. However he has a very controversial opinion on the solution to the "war against drugs". He wants it all legalised so that it can be controlled. This may sound totally ridiculous and you may say that it would never happen but you're wrong. Elton uses this character to make some very strong points about how daft politics really is. The things that happen to this guy in the end are extremely thought provoking and I'm not telling you anymore...you will have to get a copy and read it!
Jessie, now Jessie is just another girl. Her story shows the reader how somebody can easily be dragged into the world of drugs. Although they are both "drugies", she is a very different character to Tommy because she is at the bottom of the pile. These are the people that Padget is trying to protect. The people who are dragged into prostitution, life on the streets, heroin and all that goes with it. Her and Tommy's stories merge later on in the book but again I will not reveal all. Just to say that it is a lovely plot twist and you will not be able to put it down until you know what happens to them...and even then you won't believe it!
Now Sonja. Sonja is one of those silly little chavs who needs to realise that she is not all grown up and needs a dry slap across the face. She is the drug smuggler. Tempted into it through money, like allot of victims are, the inevitable happens. Yet another person's life wasted needlessly....well in Padget and Elton's opinions anyway.
There those are the main characters and their places in the story. It is quite obvious that Elton is using these characters to publish his own political opinions and get them out to the masses. So what, like I care, it's a great book. Padget is Elton's voice... His character in the novel perhaps. The other characters are mainly there to prove his point. There isn't really any part of the book that promotes the other side of the argument. It is all very one sided but it is a NOVEL not a DEBATE. I realise that this book is biased and doesn't show the other side of the argument. However I have had my fill of the other side. It's in the media every day, there are TV adverts, bill board posters, it's on the bus, in school, there are help lines "talk to Frank he will get you off drugs" dah dah da. I found it very refreshing that somebody out there grew a spine and gave the controversial side of the argument.
I don't agree with all of Elton's opinions and I'm sure that neither will allot of folk out there. The thing is that I still enjoyed the book. I couldn't put it down because it was seriously compelling stuff. I would recommend this to any adult who can read. I think it is important that we get both sides of the argument.
This book has 384 pages of normal (12ish) sized text and is available as paperback or hardback and as a talking cassette or CD. A new paperback copy now will set you back £6.99. But as always amazon.co.uk have folk selling used copies for a mere 1p + delivery charges…Get in!!! The numbers for those of you who know what to do with them are…
ISBN-10: 0552999954
ISBN-13: 978-0552999953
Thanks muchly for the reads, Luv n' Snugs, Nereesa85 xx
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Is this what we're coming to...is Amsterdam so bad??? |
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