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
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful
By J. M. Green
VINE™ VOICE
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!!
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
By crcrcrcrcr
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.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
PRENTENTIOUS, poorly written, failed attempts at being funny and/or clever. The author attempts to copy the genre's greats and fails...epically. Even though the book was finished in relatively short time, I had the feeling of having been robbed of my time. Save your time, save your money...
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
By J. ROBERTSON
Format:Paperback
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 "there's only money and sex" I would have realised it wasn't for me. But, prompted by rave reviews from supposedly intelligent people I put it on my wish list and duly received it. I persevered to the end but with no reward. It was like he wrote most of it drunk and the last 5 pages while sobering up and realising how stupid he had been. Don't believe it is a 'satire on the rich'. Satire is amusing. this isn't.
47 of 54 people found the following review helpful
By LOTHAR
VINE™ VOICE
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.
14 of 17 people found the following review helpful
By William Fross
VINE™ VOICE
Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
This book is awful. I have no idea how it was published, or how it got so many rave reviews. A "warning" at the beginning of the book says: "I can already hear many detractors referring to bad taste or sheer madness: for me these are compliments."
Well, the book does include several cartoons of penises with faces, and it is chronically incoherent. So yes, I suppose I have to refer to both "bad taste" and "madness". But it is also badly written and dull. If James Palumbo thinks those are compliments, good for him. But don't waste your money on this nonsense.
Well, the book does include several cartoons of penises with faces, and it is chronically incoherent. So yes, I suppose I have to refer to both "bad taste" and "madness". But it is also badly written and dull. If James Palumbo thinks those are compliments, good for him. But don't waste your money on this nonsense.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By Mr. D. N. Sumption
VINE™ VOICE
Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
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". As a satire, it's very one-dimensional. As a flight-of-fantasy, it's disjointed and uninvolving. Nice sentences, but nothing much joining them together.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
By D. MacQueen
Format:Paperback
Overhyped, hypocrytical, ill-conceived, poorly written, almost plotless and with characters that lack even two dimensions. The author comes across as an overprivileged loudmouthed trying too hard to be clever, which if you read his biography, you find out that's exactly what he is. I wouldn't even buy it if you were short on toilet roll - it's printed on shiny paper.
I cannot believe that Stephen Fry recommends this book. If you (like me) enjoy reading counter-culture novels, then buy a different one - there are plenty of excellent books out there. If you like penis jokes, the "Viz" books and annuals contain many of those and they're far funnier than the ones in this novel. If only Amazon had a "readers who hated this actually liked..." recommendation engine. Since it doesn't, please instead of this drivel buy one or more of the following:
The Illuminatus!: Trilogy
Fight Club
Nineteen Eighty-four
Slaughterhouse 5, or The Children's Crusade - A Duty-dance with Death
Naked Lunch: The Restored Text
American Psycho
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - Harper Perennial Modern Classics
Viz: The Council Gritter (Annual)
Rogers Profanisaurus: The Magna Farta (Viz Rogers Profanisaurus) Read more ›
I cannot believe that Stephen Fry recommends this book. If you (like me) enjoy reading counter-culture novels, then buy a different one - there are plenty of excellent books out there. If you like penis jokes, the "Viz" books and annuals contain many of those and they're far funnier than the ones in this novel. If only Amazon had a "readers who hated this actually liked..." recommendation engine. Since it doesn't, please instead of this drivel buy one or more of the following:
The Illuminatus!: Trilogy
Fight Club
Nineteen Eighty-four
Slaughterhouse 5, or The Children's Crusade - A Duty-dance with Death
Naked Lunch: The Restored Text
American Psycho
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - Harper Perennial Modern Classics
Viz: The Council Gritter (Annual)
Rogers Profanisaurus: The Magna Farta (Viz Rogers Profanisaurus) Read more ›
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4.5 out of 5 stars
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
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 21 months ago by Joshua P. OConner
5.0 out of 5 stars
"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 on 9 Sep 2010 by Travers
1.0 out of 5 stars
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
3.0 out of 5 stars
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
3.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting ideas, poorly executed
Difficult 'book' to review as its not a book in a traditional sense - more of an outpouring of Palumbo's ideas and opinions within a loose framework of a surrealistic plot. Read more
Published on 6 Jan 2010 by Jonathan Davies
4.0 out of 5 stars
Almost brilliant
During the first couple of chapters of Tomas, I had the strong impression that it might turn out to be one of favourite books of all time. Read more
Published on 18 Nov 2009 by Russell Smith
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