Instructions for Living Someone Else's Life - Mil Millington

This is the fourth book by Mil Millington, who first came to attention through his popular website "Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About." This website was so successful that Millington wrote a book of the same title but with adapted content in 2002.

Having previously read "Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About" some time ago and finding it very funny, although surreal, I picked this book up in the ...
...of the book sounded interesting - Chris goes out one night in 1988, aged 25, gets very drunk and then wakes up the next morning in 2006, in his forties and in bed with his wife (who he doesn't recognise).

Reading this book felt like a bit of a struggle for me, I kept waiting for it to be funny and it just wasn't. There were some humourous moments, such as when Chris is winding up his irritating boss Euan, who "concentrated very ... more

This is the fourth book by Mil Millington, who first came to attention through his popular website "Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About." This website was so successful that Millington wrote a book of the same title but with adapted content in 2002.

Having previously read "Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About" some time ago and finding it very funny, although surreal, I picked this book up in the library.

The synopsis on the back of the book sounded interesting - Chris goes out one night in 1988, aged 25, gets very drunk and then wakes up the next morning in 2006, in his forties and in bed with his wife (who he doesn't recognise).

Reading this book felt like a bit of a struggle for me, I kept waiting for it to be funny and it just wasn't. There were some humourous moments, such as when Chris is winding up his irritating boss Euan, who "concentrated very hard on not bursting into flames". Well it was funny when reading this book....

The book was frustrating precisely because it had the potential to be funny but wasn't. When Chris wakes up in bed with a wife he doesn't remember marrying and thinks she is a one night stand who he has to run away from, it should be a very funny scene and it almost is - it just didn't quite get there.

The characterisation isn't great - we are intended to sympathise with Chris but he just isn't likeable. He is rude, self-absorbed and generally annoying and believes he has travelled through time from 1988 to 2006, whilst everyone else thinks he is having a mid-life crisis.

The supporting characters are ok but not terribly interesting either such as Trudy (Chris's wife), Andrew (his friend) and Katrina (his ex-girlfriend). I can see that Millington is trying to convey the confusion and search for self that some people experience in middle age but this book just seems to ramble.

The text jumps from character to character and you don't always know who is in each chapter - or you are introduced to a random character who you never see again.

I found the text wandering and dull, it often failed to hold my attention and I had to force myself to finish it.

There were some humourous parts in Chris attempting to adjust to life in 2006 after thinking he was in the eighties - the wonders of the internet and his lack of comprehension of his mobile phone were quite enjoyable. However these small snippets of humour are not enough to give this book the cohesion it really needed.

I found this book quite irritating, mostly because I didn't like the protagonist but also because it had potential but seemed to have ended up as a random mess. Maybe I didn't get what Millington was trying to do or say but it wasn't one for me.

If you want to read any of Mil Millington's work read "Things My Girlfriend And I Have Argued About". If you really want to suffer through this book, then get it from the library - don't waste your money on it.
 

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