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Vernon God Little
 
 
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Vernon God Little (Hardcover)

by DBC Pierre (Author)
3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (108 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Hardcover: 288 pages
  • Publisher: Faber and Faber (20 Jan 2003)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0571215157
  • ISBN-13: 978-0571215157
  • Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (108 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 413,365 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review
If there's any justice, it is only a matter of time before the work of the curiously-named DBC Pierre becomes essential reading for anyone interested in cutting-edge writing today. Vernon God Little is a book that has a totally individual (and very quirky) identity, from a writer with a finger on the pulse of contemporary society (particularly its less comfortable aspects). Pierre is also a satirical writer in the vein of such talents as Terry Southern, and there is a manic quality to his work that makes the experience of reading him both disorienting and exhilarating. As a first novel, this is a remarkable achievement.

Teenager Vernon Gregory Little's life has been changed by the Columbine-style slaughter of a group of students at his high school. Soon his hole-in-the-wall town is blanketed under a media siege, and Vernon finds himself blamed for the killing (rather than the real culprit, a friend of Vernon's). Eulalio Ledesma is his particular nemesis, manipulating things so that Vernon becomes the fulcrum for the bizarre and vengeful impulses of the townspeople of Martirio. After a truly surrealistic set of events, Vernon finds himself heading for a fateful assignation in Mexico with the delectable Taylor Figueros (everyone in the book has names as odd as the author's).

By setting his novel in the barbecue-sauce capital of Central Texas, Pierre ensures that his narrative is going to be some distance from naturalistic writing. And as a scalpel-like satirical incision into the mores of contemporary America, reality TV and media hysteria, Vernon God Little often reads like a fractured modern-day take on such novels as John Kennedy Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces. --Barry Forshaw

Review
The terrorist atrocity that flattens skyscrapers or turns a busy nightclub into a crater is typically described by eyewitnesses as "like a film" and by novelists as an event too improbable for fiction. It is some years since Philip Roth wrote in a famous essay about a reality that is "a kind of embarrassment to one's own meagre imagination". It is this reality, the one you couldn't make up if you tried, which only makes sense as an insane film, that is the subject of this utterly original first novel about an American teenager falsely accused of a high school massacre, put on trial by television, and sentenced to death by lethal injection. Funnier than The Simpsons, closer to the knuckle than The Office, this is comic writing of the highest order. Pierre is a very clever and - quite possibly - extremely dangerous man.

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Customer Reviews

108 Reviews
5 star:
 (37)
4 star:
 (26)
3 star:
 (14)
2 star:
 (13)
1 star:
 (18)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.5 out of 5 stars (108 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars What a waste of time, 2 Jan 2009
This review is from: Vernon God Little (Paperback)
Completely overhyped, on a par with The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time (which you should also avoid). There is nothing outstanding or original about this book - thats several hours of my life I'm never going to get back!
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars So Overrated, 15 Dec 2008
By A. M. Colwill (UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Vernon God Little (Paperback)
I really can't believe some of the high praise heaped on this book. The storyline is pretty average throughout but the ridiculous ending (no doubt the author was being 'post-modern') really does take the biscuit. The amount of copies doing the rounds the £0.01 on here should tell you everything you need to know. What were the Booker judges thinking?
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Weird and whacky, 13 Aug 2004
By kimbofo (London, UK) - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER)   
This review is from: Vernon God Little (Paperback)
Did I like this book? I honestly can't say. It's certainly wierd. And it's very whacky.

It's a bit like "Catcher In the Rye" updated for the 21st century, except it's slightly more off the wall, and I could never imagine Holden Caulfield, despite all his teen angst, suddenly finding himself on some mind-bending reality show on Death Row where viewers vote who's going to be the next one to meet ol' Sparky. Yes, I told you it was weird.

DBC Pierre came out of nowhere to land the Booker Prize last year. And like this novel - his first - he seems a bit weird and whacky, too.

I have to say that I was impressed with Pierre's turns of phrase, his clever way with words and his inventive use of language.

I think what I enjoyed most about "Vernon God Little" was the satire, the whole sending-up of small town America (although I've never been to Texas, reading this book is exactly what I imagine it to be like, images and impressions cobbled together from movies and TV shows).

This is closely followed by the narrator's voice. It's unique and, for the most part, rings true. Even though the aforementioned Holden Caulfied had "issues" and was alienated, his problems, his views, were tame by comparison. One gets the impression that Vernon Gregory Little DOESN'T HAVE A CLUE about how the world operates: he's naive and gullible; he's also highly manipulative and self-centred and he's just a tad sex-obsessed; but he also has a health problem that keeps him grounded in an endearing kind of self-conscious way.

The story itself, which reads a bit like a road movie, is not so much plot driven but character driven. Effectively it all happens in Vernon's head. And the whole premise of a school shooting, which puts Vernon on America's Most Wanted List, happens before the story even starts; you just get tiny "glimpses" of what actually happened on that fateful day, filtered through Vernon's eyes, towards the end of the book.

What I didn't like was the almost fantastical elements to it (especially Part V); they were riotiously funny but a little ridiculous and because of that the story didn't seem particularly believable. It also took me awhile to get into the flow of the book; I think this is a read-in-big-chunks type of story rather than one you can pick up and read for small, intermittent periods.

All in all, an interesting and somewhat intriguing novel, but unless you're an experienced "literary" type reader who doesn't mind bad language, quirky characterisation and experiemental story-telling, I'd say this one isn't for you.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Enough to keep you awake.
Compare and contrast Vernon Little and Holden Caulfield (The Catcher in the Rye), could prove a very interesting essay for all those keen students out there. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Mark Dickens

4.0 out of 5 stars Quirky and off the wall
This unique and off the wall book won the Man Booker Prize in 2003 and tells the story of a young boy and his life after a mass murder in his hometown. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Ms. S. Saker Dimoline

4.0 out of 5 stars A Compelling Read
Vernon Gregory Little, a typical Texan born boy whose life is turned upside down by some unfortunate events, that although do not have anything to do with him, have the 17 year... Read more
Published 6 months ago by Mikyla Lois Richards

4.0 out of 5 stars An uneasy but rewarding read.
Vernon God Little is a truly original book; the depiction of the mass murder of sixteen high school students and the determination of the townsfolk and media to find a scapegoat... Read more
Published 6 months ago by L. Sparrow

4.0 out of 5 stars DBC Did Swell With VGL
I fall into the 'loved it' camp on this one. I understand why some readers might have trouble with the vernacular style but after a few pages I got into the rhythm of Vernon's... Read more
Published 6 months ago by Steven Taylor

1.0 out of 5 stars OH MY
I have read this book and didn't find it very good so i bought this and was disappointed at it as it only reads the dialogue in the book and skips through pages of the book. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Mr. A. Vale

5.0 out of 5 stars I love this book
Vernon God Little, DBC Pierre's first novel, won the 2003 Man Booker Prize. The novel is an example of satire at its best, biting, witty and at times, just plain funny. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Brendan O. Clarke

4.0 out of 5 stars Original but flawed
Booker winners seem to fall into 2 camps; studied literary works like The Sea or rollicking fantastical works like Midnights Children. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Lendrick

1.0 out of 5 stars Not a great story
I really couldn't understand what all the hype was about regarding this book & why it won a booker prize. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Q

1.0 out of 5 stars Absolute Tosh
Salman Rushdie will be delighted, finally, an author that's even more unreadable than the great man himself. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Mr. Junaid Alvi

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