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Noughties [Paperback]

Ben Masters
2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
RRP: £12.99
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Book Description

2 Feb 2012

Eliot Lamb has dreaded this moment for the past three years of his life: the final night of university. Gathered with his mates in the King's Arms, he begins the ultimate descent - Pub, Bar, Club. Staring into the foam of his first pint, he knows that before the night reaches its climactic conclusion on the sweaty dance-floor of Filth, he must solve the dilemma of his knotty love-life, risk his closest friendship, face up to a tragic secret, and deal with the fact that he hasn't a clue what to do with the rest of his life. And with the entire literary canon running wild in his imagination and a series of ominous text messages lighting up his mobile phone, things aren't going to be easy.

Noughties is an inventive and lyrical comic novel about the highs and lows of modern university life. Eliot may know a lot about Renaissance poetry, the post-modern novel, French literary theory, and how to get hammered at a highly competitive rate, but he is fast realising that adulthood beckons, and it's going to be asking a lot more of him than that.


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Product details

  • Paperback: 288 pages
  • Publisher: Hamish Hamilton (2 Feb 2012)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0241145260
  • ISBN-13: 978-0241145265
  • Product Dimensions: 15.3 x 2 x 23.4 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 405,099 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

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Product Description

Review

There's something of the early Martin Amis in Ben Masters' debut novel (Dazed & Confused )

If you've been to university recently, this confident debut will infuriate you, make you laugh, trigger lots of nostalgia and leave you with a knowing smile (Time Out )

Noughties is painful to read. Painful because it's funny and wildly literate and all too reminiscent of those lost nights finding your way in life through the puke, tongues and drinking games of your fellow students. It's real and tender and hilarious (Nikesh Shukla, Author Of The Costa First Novel-Shortlisted Coconut Unlimited )

Intelligent and entertaining . . . like early Martin Amis, it is an attempt to say something honest and even modest under a superficially flashy stylistic surface (Sunday Times )

A bittersweet hymn to the high jinks of student days, by turns funny and tender . . . a street-smart novel for our times (Financial Times )

All-singing, all-dancing style, full of flourishes and wordplay . . . genuine comic talent (Daily Mail )

Moving and relatable (The Times )

Masters is expert on the rhythms and textures of the student experience (Times Literary Supplement )

About the Author

Ben Masters is twenty-four years old. He attended Roade Comprehensive in Northampton and went to Oxford University in 2005. He has just embarked upon a PhD in English at Cambridge University. Noughties is his first novel.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Uncomfortable truth 15 April 2012
By MisterHobgoblin TOP 500 REVIEWER VINE™ VOICE
Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)
Eliot Lamb is an Oxford undergraduate. It's fair to say that he has a high opinion of himself that is probably not quite equalled by others' perceptions. He seems to be from a comfortable middle class background; went to state school; and is clever. He did well at school and has done well at university.

Eliot decides to give us a first person narration of his last night at Oxford, visiting the very real Kings Arms (the KA to those in the know); the bar at the fictional Hollywell College; and a terrible nightclub which may or may not be real (they always seem to open and close so often). Eliot and his dreadful friends engage in pretentious drinking games whilst making pompous observations on life and squirm-inducing attempts to drop academic references into everyday conversation. It is so uncomfortable because we have all been there ourselves and probably thought we were very smart at the time. Twenty years or so later, it is embarrassing.

And that is where The Noughties is interesting. Ben Masters is not long out of college himself and we have to take it on faith that Eliot's character is presented as a grotesque rather than as something autobiographical or aspirational. The novel is terribly overwritten and, again, we must take it on faith that this is post-modern irony supposed to add credence to Eliot's horribleness rather than because Ben Masters The Author thinks this is the way to write a book.

Underneath these conundra, we find quite a black story of a young man who has squandered his youth by reading too many books and deceiving the women in his life. Eliot has no job to go to because he has not actually done anything to demonstrate his employability, hence he is likely to fall into a career of academia for want of any better option. He seems also to have friendship issues with both his university colleagues and his former friends back home in Wellingborough. For a man who likes to think of himself as a social lynchpin, he doesn't really seem to have may [any?] friends at all - just some people who stand near him whilst he drinks and plays Quiz Machine.

Overall, The Noughties seems well done and Eliot's voice is mostly convincing. It is a reasonable insight into the life of an Oxford undergraduate. It also has a hopelessly misleading cover with a cartoon man with a traffic cone on his head - suggesting lad lit. This is not lad lit, it is literary fiction fair and square.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Quite uninspiring 19 Aug 2012
By SAP VINE™ VOICE
Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)
This is about a drink binge and 20-somethings' relationships. It is actually written very well though you can tell from the language that this is written by an English literature graduate and aspiring or published poet - lots of long and eccentric words. Ignoring this, it is actually pleasant enough and even fun to read. However, it isn't a tale that will stay with me for long after putting down the book. I've read far worse drug-fuelled adventures.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Echo's of a uni past 20 Mar 2012
By Christian VINE™ VOICE
Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)
Set out as a comic tale this is the story of Elliot Lamb's last night at Oxford University. It is told in three parts; Pub, Bar and Club and weaves together the events of that last night out with friends alongside glimpses of the years that came before and glimpses of the stories of Elliot's Girlfriend Lucy, the object of his lust on campus Ella and his best friend Jack. Also added in are dream sequences in an attempt to add an additional layering to the story.

The book is a stated attempt to put across the transitioning effect of university as you start to lose focus on your old life and feel in a different place to it as the friendships generated there become stronger. It also nicely does capture the messyness of the life that you create for yourself and the unintended consequences of actions, mostly drunken. I also particularly liked the way that it captured the almost lonely part of university, the way you can be surrounded by people yet feel alone. And the few close friends that you have pull you through.

It may not have been intended, but some of the characters come across as exceptionally pretentious, and by this I mean the central characters who are meant to ground you in the story. It isn't so much a quiet intellect but a rather arrogant one and this will probably put off many who pick up this book. Also it is not a comic book. I can't really recall laughing at it as I have at other comic books.

Overall I liked it and would want to go back, more as a revisit of the university experience then because of the particular storyline. For me it is a four stars, however I would rate it as three for those who avoided the university experience and so wouldn't have a strong reference point.

In the end I am not quite sure what Ben was seeking to achieve, a book touching on the university experience in relation to life seems to indicate that avoiding university is the responsible choice.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars Accurate Portrayal of University Life
It is evident that this a first novel by a recent English literature graduate - the structure is often clumsy and the wordplay unsophisticated. Read more
Published 3 months ago by EruditeBaz
1.0 out of 5 stars Simultaneously Boring, Annoying, and Too Clever By Half
I picked this up because I tend to like contemporary writing by young British writers, and this tale of the last night at Oxford sounded promising. Read more
Published 4 months ago by A. Ross
2.0 out of 5 stars Noughties
From the overview of this novel, I thought it would perhaps be an absolutely brilliant read- a small group of students on their last night at university go out, and we see the... Read more
Published 5 months ago by N. Wilson
1.0 out of 5 stars What a load of tosh!!
On the whole I was very disappointed.

The book starts well. It comprises of three cheeky clever chapters (pub, bar and club - the progression of a night out). Read more
Published 7 months ago by Fi Reviews.
3.0 out of 5 stars Fun, but lacking in finesse
I enjoyed Noughties, insofar as it reminded me of university and captures quite nicely the overwhelming terror that greets most new graduates. Read more
Published 7 months ago by F. R. Lewis
3.0 out of 5 stars Nought the most imaginative novel.
The synopsis of this book drew me in, but I was somewhat disappointed by the book. It would seem to me that the writings are those of either a current or very recent student,... Read more
Published 7 months ago by Flickering Ember
4.0 out of 5 stars Good University Nostalgia
With Ben Masters' "Noughties" you get two stories for the price of one. On the one hand, the book is a fun and alcohol-ridden reminder of what it is to be a university student. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Carl Spencer
1.0 out of 5 stars Zeros
Student days, more like Student Daze - Hahah ahah ahahah. This is as about as entertaining as Ben Masters' `Noughties' gets, a book that has so much navel-gazing that Masters... Read more
Published 9 months ago by Sam
3.0 out of 5 stars For a niche market
In Noughties, Masters showcases some excellent writing and also some of the other kind -it's all mixed up together. Read more
Published 10 months ago by uncle barbar
4.0 out of 5 stars Amusing 'Chap-Lit'
This is a good, solid book that does not push back any intellectual or story telling boundaries, but is ultimately very enjoyable. Read more
Published 10 months ago by Zip Domingo
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