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The Digested Read
 
 

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The Digested Read (Hardcover)

by John Crace (Author)
5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
Price: £9.99 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
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Product details

  • Hardcover: 192 pages
  • Publisher: Guardian Books (13 Oct 2005)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 1843544849
  • ISBN-13: 978-1843544845
  • Product Dimensions: 17.8 x 13.8 x 3.2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 309,562 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Review
"'Brilliantly ruthlessly funny. My kids read mine aloud to me till I cried.' JULIE MYERSON 'What I like about the digested read is that, unlike the other kind of digestion, what comes out is usually better than what went in.' JOHN SUTHERLAND 'We all need cutting down to size, don't we? The Guardian does a brilliant Job. Dammit.' SUE MAcGREGOR 'We all have to grit our teeth and submit to John Crace's merciless mockery. I do it with a good grace because he makes me laugh so much.' JOAN BAKEWELL"

Product Description
A hilarious collection of incisive and spot-on pastiches of the most popular writers, from Bridget Jones to Julian Barnes.

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Customer Reviews

3 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
5.0 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars The one volume Christmas library, 24 Oct 2005
John Crace's Digested Read is humour for those who like to wear their brows above the hair line. Its fiendishly clever and devilishly funny. Although it can happily entertain for prolonged periods, its savage parodies of the latest must-read lit hits are best savoured in short bursts when you have a few minutes spare.

Will Self wrote words to the effect that Crace has read the books so you dont have to. That's not quite true. These 500 word barbs are not condensed reads or summaries but caricatures.

They exaggerate their targets' most prominent features and turn them into hilarious grotesques. Verbal tics, inconsistencies of plot, sloppy characterisation and literary pretension are all brilliantly highlighted and lampooned. But just like a caricature, you probably wouldn't recognise the original unless you had seen it elsewhere previously.

We might rail against reality TV and the celebrity culture, but there's no doubt that High Culture tends to get po-faced and a little bit up itself these days. So full marks to Crace for having the wit and courage to yell out that the emperor has no clothes.

At the end of each entry there is a one-sentence digested digested read. The digested digested dread of The Digested Read should be simply "A little editing goes a long way'.

But if there is a problem with the book it is that in Crace's world emperors never have any clothes and always wander around stark naked. Crace never stops his jeering and cat-calling. On the other hand just as in journalism good news is not news, in satire, kindness is not funny. And this book is very very funny.

I now wish I hadn't bought it -but only because its a perfect stocking filler for those with a literary bent. Father Christmas being a perceptive soul would surely have recognised this and given me a copy for free.

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5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful, funny and inteligent book., 2 Jun 2007
By G. Wake "gregwake" (Newcastle, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This was the best book I have read in weeks! Each book is covered here in around two pages and the author uses this space to great effect so the Digested Read is both fun in itself and gives you a good idea of the books included. I found some of the write-ups so good I've gone and bought some books on the basis of what John Crace wrote and am avoiding other books mentioned in here for the same reason. This is a wonderful little book with small, easy to read sections, a lot of comedy and very skilful writing. I can't wait for there to be another.
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5.0 out of 5 stars Not nice, but very clever, 18 Dec 2007
By J. E. Davidson (UK) - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
Although this is essentially just a collection of previously published articles (from the Guardian) this is still a wonderful book.

It may not be nice (in fact it is often vicious) but it is very, very clever and very, very funny. As an earlier reviewer pointed out these are not really digested reads, they are very funny and often vicious satirical caricatures.

Crace has a weekly column in the Guardian and has selected a diverse set of books to satirise (he claims that he selected them based on which book was receiving the most publicity in that particular week). Each book receives roughly the same treatment: a 500 word dissection, the digested read itself, and a single line summary, often an assassination, the digested read digested.

Crace focuses in on a particular aspect of each book and pulls it apart mercilessly. His favourite targets are clunky plots, poor prose, stylistics tics and the pretensions of the author.

I have not read the vast majority books satirised but I was familiar enough with the authors (and their styles) to appreciate the dissections.
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