Whatever Love Means (Paperback)

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Amazon.co.uk Review
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

Amazon.co.uk Review
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 --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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I used to tell this story. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
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54 Reviews 5 star:  (29) 4 star:  (6) 3 star:  (7) 2 star:  (6) 1 star:  (6)           Average Customer Review 3.9 out of 5 stars (54 customer reviews)		Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Most Helpful Customer Reviews   10 of 11 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars THE LIVING ARE THE LIVING,, 7 Oct 2008 By  DAVID BRYSON (Glossop Derbyshire England) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)       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 encyclicals of every Pope since Peter. I bought this one only on the strength of its authorship. David Baddiel is or used to be a comedian, of a quiet and intellectual kind. He specialised in insights and apercus, and anyone who specialises in those runs a constant risk of being a crashing bore. However Baddiel did them better than many, so I was hopeful, and in the event I found this story quite interesting even at the start, and absolutely riveting by the end. Not surprisingly, this edition hypes the book as being set against the background of the death of Princess Diana. In fact that has very little bearing on the story, but Baddiel does not waste material, there is a very telling parallel towards the end, and of course the book's title quotes a notorious piece of crass insensitivity from the heir to the British throne towards his young and sensitive fiancée. How well does this title fit what happens in the following 300-odd pages? Myself, I'd say `quite well'. The torrid bits of the narrative are near the start, and the events never detach themselves from the emotional and sexual relationships among the four main players, but increasingly as the plot develops it turns into a rather interesting tease - who suspects whom and what? As I read it all, the author does not commit himself to answering the question of what love is, nor can I see any reason why he should. Quite apart from the grown-ups and their `adult' behaviour, there is a baby in this story and he is quite unquestionably loved. It is never so unquestionable among the adults, and in fact the actual word `love' does not seem to occur very often. What seems to me good without any qualification is the storytelling technique. As the plot thickens, the cross-purposes dialogues with the participants uncertain what their interlocutors might be suggesting are very neatly done. The sub-plots are worked into the main narrative very skilfully I thought, and any unresolved suggestions are always picked up and answered, culminating in a genuine thunderbolt of a conclusion. I felt a twinge of suspicion that the final unravelling of the main mystery might have been not completely in keeping with the characterisation that had been very consistent up until then, with a slight hint of Poirot in the way it is explained. Even if I'm right about that, it is a small price to pay for such an original denouement, and I know that my own sense of involvement increased sharply in the last few chapters. Baddiel is yer genuine deep thinker in the last resort. We get a bit from him about the contest between love and death - eros (more accurately passion) and thanatos -- and of course eros keeps ahead all the way until finally losing as he must. Of the four main dicers with these two fates one dies, one sails through totally unscathed, one I would definitely not have liked to be, and I don't know what to think regarding the fourth. The living are the living/And dead the dead shall stay. I'm not sure who finishes worst off, nor do I think I'm meant to be any the wiser as to what `love' means. Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)   4 of 4 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars Dark but brilliant, 23 Feb 2001 By  Mrs. A. J. Jeffrey "alijoy" (England, UK) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)    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! Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)   2 of 2 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars Simply astounding, 9 Jan 2002 By  debra_mcgowan@btinternet.com (UK) - See all my reviews 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! Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this) Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review › See all 54 customer reviews...		Most Recent Customer Reviews 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 6 days ago by Jasmine 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 9 months ago 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 16 months ago 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 Jul 2006 by Snapdragon 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 Jul 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 3.0 out of 5 stars Fine - nothing special I liked Time for Bed, and so I'd been looking forward to reading this. The story is entertaining enough - mainly set around Joe (a hedonist) and his assorted friends. Read more Published on 12 Feb 2003 by Claire 3.0 out of 5 stars Novel with an identity crisis This starts out in what I suppose would be classed Nick Hornby territory - blokes, relationships, kids. Read more Published on 7 Feb 2003 by Lendrick 5.0 out of 5 stars Very poignent I struggled to read the first chapter or so of this book, probably because the characters weren't interesting enough to keep my attention focused. Read more Published on 16 Jun 2002 1.0 out of 5 stars a comedy of errors?? thank goodness i didnt buy this book, i would be wanting a refund. although the plot was interesting, the author seemed to periodically and conveniently forget certain... Read more Published on 24 Feb 2002 by maria9543 Search Customer Reviews Only search this product's reviews › See all 54 customer reviews...

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