The End of the World [Kindle Edition]

Strange little tale that never really goes anywhere and feels as though it is just being odd for odd sake! Reads a little like Will Self but not quite so good ~ the main advantage is that it won't take long to read!

I hated this, I hate the writing style, I hate the content and I hate that I wasted even a small part of my life on this utter rubbish!

The reviews of this book, included in the version I have, describe it as "humorous, clever and funny" but it is none of these things, they also describe it as "surreal and weird" which is at least true if not very helpful.

The author seems to think verbosity is the same as wit, he stretches sentences on and on as if you should marvel at his ability to string words together in a coherent order.

In the first chapter there is a little wit as we meet Valentine and his parents but even this is spoiled by pretension.
The author deliberately uses an archaic word, contumacious, and even suggests you look it up in the dictionary, that is a bit pretentious but harmless. The problem is if you are going to do that then the rest of your prose needs to be perfect otherwise it goes from a little pretentious to completely pretentious with a dollop of stupidity mixed in and within a few pages there are mistakes, these are mistakes that would be ignored normally as simple editing errors but after telling his reader to go use a dictionary these mistakes make the comment seem arrogant since clearly the author was too lazy to use his own dictionary.

After chapter one there is no more humour, none.
The next chapters can be defined by the whining that is done, there is the one that whines about western news, the one that whines about western consumer culture, the one that whines about religion, and so on ...

The book is weird and surreal but anyone can be weird and surreal; just ask someone to describe their dreams to you.

There is some cut-price spiritual nonsense mixed in with the whining to try and give the book a veneer of depth.

I have rarely hated a book this much.
I got it for free and I still feel ripped off.

This book was recommended by a friend, so I downloaded the sample to see for myself. I found I was hooked from the first amusing paragraph and it wasn't long before my mouse wandered back to the 1-click button so I could read the rest.

The book begins with a verbal exchange between a mother and her stay-at-home son. From the first few words, I found myself chortling at the curiously philosophical conversation. The son later meets Anna the landlady, in whose household he spends most of the story. The various other 'lodgers' in Anna's house keep the young man in a state of naive bewilderment with a succession of eccentric propositions and unexpected questions. The only challenge he is able to rise to is when he is accosted by a priest who emerges from a kitchen appliance, in a scene which reminded me of the prison cell visit by a priest in Albert Camus' 'L'Etranger'.

If you can imagine your literary sensibility having feet, with one foot planted in surrealism and the other in existentialism, this book will tickle your toes in a singular fashion with its extravagantly eccentric banter. The story races along at a cracking pace, with barely a pause to draw breath, and includes many wonderful lines like:
"I stood in the doorway, sensing failure but clinging to hope."

- and of a bottomless coffee pot offered as part of the extensive breakfast menu:
"But surely that defies the laws of physics."
"Not if you pay your rent on time."

The mid part of the story veers into the macabre and even horrifiying, as death insinuates itself between the pages. Although death may be peaceful, it can also be horrific. This phase passes, however, and as the story concludes, it finds resolution in a surrealist form of reincarnation. 'The End Of The World' explores how death might also be a very confusing place for the recently and unexpectedly deceased.

I consider this tale to have a strongly humane and humanitarian message. It is an absorbing, entertaining and thought-provoking story, and one I would very highly recommend to anyone who appreciates a surreal and unconventional approach to 'life, death and everything in between'.