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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Some very funny bits but ultimately, just an okay satire, 25 Sep 2002
I agree that it's brave of reviewer and critic Mark Lawson to write a work of fiction, especially one where there's so much parallel with his own life.He makes television presenting sound like the very WORST kind of job there is. Why DO so many young people want to do it? He brings alive how vacuous, empty & ultimately pointless it all is. Yet I found it terribly hard to care for his protagonist. There's only one bit when I felt myself even slightly moved by his ever-worsening predicaments, most of which he brings on himself. And Mr. Lawson, book critic, motivation? Okay, so Richard Fleming is ambitious, vain, driven and a workaholic. But why? How did he get like that? What pressed his buttons as a child to make him like this as an adult? If the hero isn't terribly well fleshed out, then the rest of the characters aren't either. Okay, so this is satire and it's about an empty existence but there should be genuine 'good' guys for contrast. There are, you know, a lot of people who don't give a damn about television, either appearing on it or watching it. Some sense of this would have added a richer dimension. This is, technically at least, a very well-executed book, stronger on plot than characterisation, of which there's, actually, hardly any. It reads more like a thriller than anything which does make it a page turner. And some of the set pieces are laugh-out-loud funny for which, many thanks.
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