Like most people, Vic Mullan - once described by his best friend Joe as 'a man whose sense of social responsibility is exhausted by pulling over to let an ambulance by' - can remember where he was and what he was doing on the day of Princess Diana's death. Yes, he can remember it particularly well: he was at home, beginning an affair with Emma, Joe's wife. The opening sections of David Baddiel's second novel chart the history of an intense and passionately sexual liaison set against the background of the most hysterical time in recent memory. But as the months wear on, and life and love return to normal, so things become more complex between Vic and Emma. And then, tragedy - a real, local, small-scale tragedy, as opposed to a national, iconic, mythological one - intervenes. Part-satire, part-love story, part-whodunnit, and part-meditation on the nature of sex and death, WHATEVER LOVE MEANS confirms Nick Hornby's assertion that David Baddiel has 'gone straight into the First Eleven of young contemporary British novelists'.
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Vic is a nearly-famous rock guitarist thinking about shacking up in south London with his foul-mouthed thirty-something girlfriend Tess; Vic's best friend Joe is a geeky, AIDS-researching biochemist who shares a son and a flash yuppie pad with the beautiful and slightly Irish Emma. On the day of Princess Diana's death Vic falls into bed with Em; a few months later Joe sort of does the same with Tess. If that were all there was to this book, it would hardly be worth bothering with: just another Hampstead (or rather, Herne Hill) adultery novel. What raises it up a considerable notch, quite apart from Baddiel's obvious gift for very good jokes, is his less expected gift for deadpan but dryly insightful prose, and his even more unexpected talent for fleshing out character. Every player in this touching, tragic tale: female as well as male, minor as much as major, villainous alongside virtuous, is eminently believable, and harrowingly feasible. Not quite so convincing is the Princess-Diana-death subplot that forms a background to the early chapters. Like the hysteria over the Queen of Hearts itself, the whole thing rather peters out, and provides little more than an excuse for the book's well-chosen title (it's a famous Prince Chuck quote apropos his then fiancée Diana). Taken as a whole, small misgivings aside, this is a fine and impressive novel: funny, sad, warm, dark, tender, wise and bleakly memorable. --Sean Thomas
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'I read it in one sitting with awe... a thriller and a love story constructed with a sinister symmetry...' -- Chrissie Iley, SUNDAY TIMES
'Touching and strange and funny' -- SAM MENDES, Director of AMERICAN BEAUTY
'Touching and strange and funny' -- SAM MENDES, Director of AMERICAN BEAUTY
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Don't believe the hype saying this is a funny book - it's anything but. I've just read this and thought it was a clever plot and well written - a moral tale? Not a fan of his comedy at all and was very surprised at the standard of the writing - highly recommended.Particularly liked the start as I could not stand the mass hysteria when Diana died!
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Although a big fan of David since his Mary Whitehouse Expereince days, I had absolutely no idea that he had it in him to write such an incredibly gripping novel. The characters arew well thought out, and the many twists and turns of the plot left me unable to put this book down once I had started! The storey is cleverly planned out, and you become so involved with the characters that the end of each chapter leaves you desperate to know what happens next!
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
THis is a stunning follow up to the equally brilliant Time for Bed. Baddiel has the rare ability to convey male emotion and it is this which brings his well crafted stories alive. Not as much is lifted from his stand-up routine as in the 1st novel but the timing of gags when delivered succeeds in lightening a tacitly poignant book. I can't wait for his next effort
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4.3 out of 5 stars
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
Hornby it ain't
A clever book that's also funny in parts. But the behaviour of the main characters felt odd to me, implausible. Read more
Published 15 months ago by Simon Bendle
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of my Favourite Modern Novels
I first read this book upon its publication in 2000, and later lost my copy to an ex boyfriend. Finding out that it had gone out of print, I scoured used book shops and charity... Read more
Published on 11 Feb 2011 by Laura Bourne
5.0 out of 5 stars
Funny and touching
I wasn't expecting much of this novel, I confess, but it had been selected by our book club, so I read it. I loved the characters, especially the cynicism of Vic. Read more
Published on 3 Sep 2009 by Susan Burrell
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent and gripping!
This was an incredible, ultimately haunting book. I was really impressed by the skill with which the plot builds. Read more
Published on 13 July 2009 by Jasmine
5.0 out of 5 stars
THE LIVING ARE THE LIVING,
and dead the dead shall stay.
Novels about people having affairs, I often think, must have done more for the cause of celibacy and monogamy than the combined bulls and... Read more
Novels about people having affairs, I often think, must have done more for the cause of celibacy and monogamy than the combined bulls and... Read more
Published on 7 Oct 2008 by DAVID BRYSON
2.0 out of 5 stars
Not great
Can't say I was taken by this book. I'm a fan of David Baddiel but I didn't feel he really expanded his characters too well and the plot was a little thin. Read more
Published on 23 Sep 2008 by Dave
4.0 out of 5 stars
Whatever Love Means
This book takes 40 or so pages to get going, and then it becomes a real page turner. I thought the characterisation was very good, as was the plot, although I did have some... Read more
Published on 14 Mar 2008 by gerty guinea
3.0 out of 5 stars
Don't expect too many laughs...
I don't know why I was expecting someething funny, perhaps becasue of Baddiel's background, but I certainly didn't get it! Read more
Published on 23 July 2006 by Sarah Durston
5.0 out of 5 stars
Loved every minute of it
Fantastic novel which alternates between being hilarious (laugh out loud) in many places and being extremely dark at the same time. Read more
Published on 1 July 2004 by "mikemoroney2"
4.0 out of 5 stars
watch out for Boris!
A brilliant, realistic, sad, yet funny book, with a very dark ending. Very well written, and the bit where Boris (the dog) gets a bit of a fright and reacts accordingly, actually... Read more
Published on 5 Nov 2003
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