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Gingerbread Economy
 
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Gingerbread Economy (Paperback)

by Lee McGeorge (Author)
3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
Price: £6.99 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
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Product details

  • Paperback: 384 pages
  • Publisher: Speartip (1 Mar 2004)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0954695305
  • ISBN-13: 978-0954695309
  • Product Dimensions: 17.4 x 11 x 2.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 1,890,033 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Book Description

Violent / Dangerous / Frightening / Vicious
How long do you think you could survive in this environment?

The western governments and their great economies had collapsed, the rule of law had broken, anarchy was pandemic and kill-or-be-killed became the only way to survive.
But that was a decade ago.
Now the survivors of a shattered and volatile world have learnt to organise themselves, to rebuild from what they could salvage and to cooperate for the good of the many.

In one small town, a skilled managerial leadership has emerged with a radical new currency and an iron fisted approach to law and order. They've stamped out crime, stimulated trade and generated hope in a landscape where violence and murder was an all too common way of life.
But a chain of events has been set in motion that threatens to send the town into freefall, to destroy its economy and to turn the cooperative struggle for improvement into a vicious battle for survival.

In a stunning debut novel, Lee McGeorge unleashes a powerhouse thriller of narcotic capitalism that, whilst being dark, violent and often frightening, is tempered with a slick intelligence and captivating storyline that ensures its place as a cult favourite.

How long could you survive?



About the Author

Prior to stepping into fiction full time, Lee McGeorge enjoyed a successful hotel and catering career working in 10 Downing Street, Buckingham Palace, the British Embassy, Berlin, and some of London’s finest hotels.
Born in Hartlepool in 1973, he now lives in London with his wife Fong Ling.

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Customer Reviews

2 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
3.0 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars An astonishingly bad book..., 13 Jul 2007
By Jezza (London) - See all my reviews
Apparently self-published, or at least published by a company with close associations with the author and nothing else on its lists. Sadly it doesn't seem to be able to afford any editors or even proof-readers - there are basic errors of grammar and spelling sprinkled through the text. The author is over-fond of vivid descriptions of torture and violence - some of it rather reminded me of the 'Skinhead' and 'Bovver Boy' books that my less literary schoolmates used to read. The characters are not even one-dimensional, though there is some illusion of depth because he can't really be bothered to make them consistent across the narrative. For a book that is supposed to be about economics, it's strikingly economically illiterate - when the nasty villain takes all of the liquidity out of the town's economy, inflation results. Maybe McGeorge just can't imagine roaring deflation.

And yet...somewhere inside this is probably a much better book struggling to get out. There haven't been many books about economic collapse, and well done to McGeorge for having a go at one. It did make me think a bit - what would the Argentinian economic melt-down have looked like set in a small town in England?

In a way it would be good to set this alongside some of the material on Transition Towns - a fictional depiction of that sort of scenario is a good idea, even if this isn't it.

I hope that the author doesn't give up (actually judging from the publisher's web site there is little danger of that) but he needs to find a friendly editor who will tell him what he does well and what he doesn't.



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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars THIS IS SO DARK AND FRIGHTENING, 11 May 2004
By A Customer
I was recommended this book by someone who told me it was like George Orwell's 1984 but with economics instead of politics and that it was a really fast paced nail-biter. What they didn't say was it was a truly horrifying scare fest that makes most horror novels seem like childrens books.
The story takes place in this damaged world that is so bleak and sad, it's supposed to be England but in a kind of Mad Max way, where in the future everything has broken and there's no law and order. It was heart breaking to read because you really feel that there's no future for the people who live there and no end in sight.
Then into this bleak world comes a management team of villians and thugs who have managed to build a town using a new currency based on the drug LSD. This part of the story is genuinely clever and we discover how this drug is made on little banknotes with a gingerbread man icon (hence the title) and how it is used to develop trade and industry in the town.

Into this landscape then comes a few different stories that all run parallel and mix and match between them.
First is the story about a boy brutally treated by the state, about how his parents are brutally treated by the state, and how they will plot and execute their revenge.
Second is how the toruted genius who created the gingerbread currency can't stand the environment he's living in and makes plans to escape.
And third is a how the female president/manager/boss whatever, fights with her out of control and psychotic top law-enforcer.

At first these stories seem seperate, and are told in seperate layers. But slowly they come together and start bouncing off one another with frightening reprecussions. It doesn't take long (about 50 or 60 pages) before you're reading the book at arms length and scared to find out what happens next. The first night I read it I had nightmares because it was too violent and I vowed not to read anymore, but I couldn't help it, by that time I was hooked.

In all I'd say it's a good book with a clever story, it's very well written and has beleivable characters and a very beleivable setting. It's also a very fast read, and on the face of it this should be an excellent book. But if like me you don't like violence or depressing books you should stay well clear. This is definately not for everyone and is at the extreme end of dark and disturbing fiction.
I suppose a book is good if you keep thinking about it after you've read it, but if you don't like bad thoughts then it may be too heavy. It's not just that it's disturbing, but that it hits so hard and so often that it perhaps goes into overkill.

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