Tomas
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Review
'Absolutely amazing'--Stephen Fry
'The noises I made whilst reading this book frightened people'--Noel Fielding
'Visionary, revealing grim truths'--Evening Standard
'Should be on the long list for the Man Booker Prize'--Peter James
'Savage satire of the highest calibre'--Monocle
'Grotesque as it is gripping'--Niall Ferguson
'A scathing attack on celebrity culture'--TLS
'I loved it'-Claudia Winkleman
'Many will enjoy this grotesque, bizarre satire'--thelondonpaper
'Either mad or genius of both'--Rory Bremner
'Has cult written all over it'--TheBookBag
'The noises I made whilst reading this book frightened people'--Noel Fielding
'Visionary, revealing grim truths'--Evening Standard
'Should be on the long list for the Man Booker Prize'--Peter James
'Savage satire of the highest calibre'--Monocle
'Grotesque as it is gripping'--Niall Ferguson
'A scathing attack on celebrity culture'--TLS
'I loved it'-Claudia Winkleman
'Many will enjoy this grotesque, bizarre satire'--thelondonpaper
'Either mad or genius of both'--Rory Bremner
'Has cult written all over it'--TheBookBag
Book Description
There has been much talk of late about how the continuing financial turmoil will find expression in the arts. Will the literature of this depression match the quality of that created in the 1930s?
Impossible to précis its narrative, Palumbo's story weaves and curves its way around the adventures of Tomas, a young man ensconced in a world of wealth, privilege and corruption.
Like Candide and Gulliver before him, Tomas's adventures will startle the reader's imagination, yet linger in her mind. What seems grotesque, even impossible, has already happened ... For excess of imagination, passion, outrage, death and love, greed and vice, often provide a clearer view of life.
Impossible to précis its narrative, Palumbo's story weaves and curves its way around the adventures of Tomas, a young man ensconced in a world of wealth, privilege and corruption.
Like Candide and Gulliver before him, Tomas's adventures will startle the reader's imagination, yet linger in her mind. What seems grotesque, even impossible, has already happened ... For excess of imagination, passion, outrage, death and love, greed and vice, often provide a clearer view of life.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
So, Stephen Fry, Niall Fergusson, Noel Fielding and Rory Bremner find this book an incredible read? Begs the question what on earth do they normally read! For sure, this kind of celebrity praise will account for many a reader buying the book in the first instance without realising that this is not at all witty, intelligent or funny!
Whilst always liking the works and ramblings of Spike Milligan, at least the insanity was funny - but this falls well short of the mark and even though I did consider not completing it on many occasions, I did complete it in the vain hope that it could not get any worse, but I was wrong, and therefore apart from wasting a few of my valuable hours of reading time, the planet lost more trees to create the paper that was wasted on this drivel.
Maybe it's me? Maybe it's that I don't understand current humour anymore? Somehow, I don't think that it is me.
So, on reflection, take away the generosity of the 1 star!!
Whilst always liking the works and ramblings of Spike Milligan, at least the insanity was funny - but this falls well short of the mark and even though I did consider not completing it on many occasions, I did complete it in the vain hope that it could not get any worse, but I was wrong, and therefore apart from wasting a few of my valuable hours of reading time, the planet lost more trees to create the paper that was wasted on this drivel.
Maybe it's me? Maybe it's that I don't understand current humour anymore? Somehow, I don't think that it is me.
So, on reflection, take away the generosity of the 1 star!!
45 of 53 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
I can't help but feel that the inexplicable rave review from Stephen Fry has a lot to do with the altogether undeserved praise being heaped on this innane attempt at satire. Palumbo is trying very hard to create a voice which is alternately Tom Robbins, Hunter Thompson and Douglas Adams, and fails on all counts. The stream-of-consciouness style screams of effort, his metaphors are painfully forced and his ham-handed attempts at social commentary are obvious, belaboured and, coming from a member of the monied and privledged elite, ever so slightly hypocritical. The contrived "surrealism" of the book is flat-out embarrassing (seriously, how cliched is the use of "adjective + adjective + adjective + dwarf"??). I can't help but feel there is a bit of Emporer's New Clothes syndrome occurring when I see other reviewers claiming they were collapsing with laughter every 30 seconds, relishing the author's insight and wit. If this is true, these readers really need to expand their horizons a bit. Tomas is derivative, juvenille and directionless. If it had been published without blurbs of praise from a variety of celebrities (many of whom I'm guessing lent their names due to familial connections more than the literary weight of the novel), and without mentioning that the author also happens to be the co-founder of the Ministry of Sound nightclub, it would have disappeared under the radar without a blip.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book is an absolute disappointment. It tries to be experimental, but is in fact tediously predictable. Ignore the celeb blurbs, it really is terrible. There is no plot, just obvious cliches with a bunch of 'zany' characters. It is dull, dull, dull.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Well-written but hollow
This is a fascinating little book, and Palumbo certainly has a talent for creating vivid imagery through his writing, but it left me feeling "so what". Read more
Published 7 months ago by Mr. D. N. Sumption
A wild, edgy satire with a gruesome cast of characters
In attempting to describe Tomas from a general standpoint, it's hard to come up with a concise fit within the boundaries of literary genres or to even come up with another writer... Read more
Published 9 months ago by Joshua P. OConner
Not my thing
I found it really hard to get into this book, to the point where I'm finding it difficult to do it justice in this review. Read more
Published 10 months ago by Telboy
Failure
PRENTENTIOUS, poorly written, failed attempts at being funny and/or clever. The author attempts to copy the genre's greats and fails...epically. Read more
Published 17 months ago by jean_baptiste_emmanuel_zorg
"A stab at reality TV"
There have been quite a few attempts to satirise reality TV - Dark Entries, by Ian Rankin and Werther Dell'edera. Read more
Published 21 months ago by Travers
won't get fooled again?
I've read this once and I've read it twice...and I can't decide.
Sitting on the fence...perhaps.
Is this a work of genius or the read of fools? Read more
Sitting on the fence...perhaps.
Is this a work of genius or the read of fools? Read more
Published 21 months ago by bohobozo
Not funny
The best thing I can say about this is that the front cover looked stylish. It has made me realise the value of browsing in a bookshop because if I had seen the back cover... Read more
Published 21 months ago by J. ROBERTSON
It's not big and it's not clever.
Overhyped, hypocrytical, ill-conceived, poorly written, almost plotless and with characters that lack even two dimensions. Read more
Published 22 months ago by D. MacQueen
American Psycho this ain't
I have t oadmit that I gave up reading this after wading through the firt quarter of this book. What is supposed to be a surrealist satire on modern culture is nothing more than a... Read more
Published on 19 Feb 2010 by D. Macphee
The future's dark, the future's Tomas
At first I really wasn't sure about Tomas, but it grew on me. At first, Palumbo's satire felt simply too over the top to be believable, or even funny... Read more
Published on 28 Jan 2010 by J. Charlesworth
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