The Thought Gang (Fiction series) [Paperback]

The quality of writing is impressive, a real joy is taken in playing with words, sending sentences cascading towards sometimes hairy conclusions with the irreverence of a drunken muskateer, to which the plot, when it is evident, plays a sometimes psychotic foil. Do not read this novel in a public place, unfortunately, laughing alone is no longer viewed as socially acceptable.

Somewhere between the laughs though, a depth of emotion and seductive strength of characterisation draw you into this other world, and there are a few one-line asides on the general impossibility of life, that would make any philosopher proud.

All in all then, the novel serves as a hilarious analogy for life as it appears within the novel, hugely imperfect, but strangely beautiful and effective.

So begins this hilarious tale of a tenured philosopher at Cambridge who absconds with departmental funds to France, where he meets up with a deranged(?) one-armed robber named Hubert, a psychopath with "a gluttony for erudition." Soon the two of them are on an increasingly improbable crime-spree, rifling bank-vaults & schools of thought with equal aplomb.

As the loot mounts and the police circle ever closer, Eddie & Hubert decide to make one last, climactic heist, to put the capper on their caper career and to put their philosophical conclusions (which include contributions from the Ancient Greeks to Nietzche) to the ultimate practical test.

Tibor Fischer has created a side-splitting narrative that is as full of deep intelligence as it is full of belly-rending guffaws. This is a novel whose pace puts the average potboiler to shame and whose implications stretch the envelope for literary fiction. Eddie & Hubert are characters you will love to hate and vice-versa. If you have an appetite for Felony and Philosophy, then this book is a must-read, a re-read, and a keeper.

And somehow he manages to fit a philosophy A to Z (or Zeeif you've been educated through song and a Giant Yellow bird) into the story line without it ever getting boring.

The only reason I'd only award 4 stars is that I felt it was let down a little by the ending. This may sound daft but it just kinda ends....

It has a happy mix of tomfoolery, sex and irreverance for the law, all hanging loosely to a plot of crime and bank-robbery. You will be amazed at their attitudes toward their crimes, and laugh out loud at their treatment of the bungling local constabulary. The pace, and their crimes, build through the pages, culminating with the piece de resistance.

Anyone who likes that acrid whit of Irvine Walsh, or the goonish antics of the Marx Brothers is guaranteed to find this hilarious. Those of a more conservative nature may still find it a chuckle, but may be a little bemused by the characters' antics. Read it and see for yourself.