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Noughties Paperback – 2 Feb 2012

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Ben Masters (Author)
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Ben Masters (Author)
3.0 out of 5 stars 33 customer reviews
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Product details

  • Paperback: 288 pages
  • Publisher: Hamish Hamilton (2 Feb. 2012)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0241145260
  • ISBN-13: 978-0241145265
  • Product Dimensions: 15.3 x 2 x 23.4 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,153,560 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Product Description

Review

There's something of the early Martin Amis in Ben Masters' debut novel (Dazed & Confused )

If you've been to university recently, this confident debut will infuriate you, make you laugh, trigger lots of nostalgia and leave you with a knowing smile (Time Out )

Noughties is painful to read. Painful because it's funny and wildly literate and all too reminiscent of those lost nights finding your way in life through the puke, tongues and drinking games of your fellow students. It's real and tender and hilarious (Nikesh Shukla, Author Of The Costa First Novel-Shortlisted Coconut Unlimited )

Intelligent and entertaining . . . like early Martin Amis, it is an attempt to say something honest and even modest under a superficially flashy stylistic surface (Sunday Times )

A bittersweet hymn to the high jinks of student days, by turns funny and tender . . . a street-smart novel for our times (Financial Times )

All-singing, all-dancing style, full of flourishes and wordplay . . . genuine comic talent (Daily Mail )

Moving and relatable (The Times )

Masters is expert on the rhythms and textures of the student experience (Times Literary Supplement )

About the Author

Ben Masters is twenty-four years old. He attended Roade Comprehensive in Northampton and went to Oxford University in 2005. He has just embarked upon a PhD in English at Cambridge University. Noughties is his first novel.

Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 starsUncomfortable truth
By MisterHobgoblin TOP 500 REVIEWERVINE VOICE on 15 April 2012
Format: Paperback Vine Customer Review of Free Product ( What's this? )
Eliot Lamb is an Oxford undergraduate. It's fair to say that he has a high opinion of himself that is probably not quite equalled by others' perceptions. He seems to be from a comfortable middle class background; went to state school; and is clever. He did well at school and has done well at university.

Eliot decides to give us a first person narration of his last night at Oxford, visiting the very real Kings Arms (the KA to those in the know); the bar at the fictional Hollywell College; and a terrible nightclub which may or may not be real (they always seem to open and close so often). Eliot and his dreadful friends engage in pretentious drinking games whilst making pompous observations on life and squirm-inducing attempts to drop academic references into everyday conversation. It is so uncomfortable because we have all been there ourselves and probably thought we were very smart at the time. Twenty years or so later, it is embarrassing.

And that is where The Noughties is interesting. Ben Masters is not long out of college himself and we have to take it on faith that Eliot's character is presented as a grotesque rather than as something autobiographical or aspirational. The novel is terribly overwritten and, again, we must take it on faith that this is post-modern irony supposed to add credence to Eliot's horribleness rather than because Ben Masters The Author thinks this is the way to write a book.

Underneath these conundra, we find quite a black story of a young man who has squandered his youth by reading too many books and deceiving the women in his life. Eliot has no job to go to because he has not actually done anything to demonstrate his employability, hence he is likely to fall into a career of academia for want of any better option.Read more ›
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4.0 out of 5 starsEcho's of a uni past
By Christian VINE VOICE on 20 Mar. 2012
Format: Paperback Vine Customer Review of Free Product ( What's this? )
Set out as a comic tale this is the story of Elliot Lamb's last night at Oxford University. It is told in three parts; Pub, Bar and Club and weaves together the events of that last night out with friends alongside glimpses of the years that came before and glimpses of the stories of Elliot's Girlfriend Lucy, the object of his lust on campus Ella and his best friend Jack. Also added in are dream sequences in an attempt to add an additional layering to the story.

The book is a stated attempt to put across the transitioning effect of university as you start to lose focus on your old life and feel in a different place to it as the friendships generated there become stronger. It also nicely does capture the messyness of the life that you create for yourself and the unintended consequences of actions, mostly drunken. I also particularly liked the way that it captured the almost lonely part of university, the way you can be surrounded by people yet feel alone. And the few close friends that you have pull you through.

It may not have been intended, but some of the characters come across as exceptionally pretentious, and by this I mean the central characters who are meant to ground you in the story. It isn't so much a quiet intellect but a rather arrogant one and this will probably put off many who pick up this book. Also it is not a comic book. I can't really recall laughing at it as I have at other comic books.

Overall I liked it and would want to go back, more as a revisit of the university experience then because of the particular storyline. For me it is a four stars, however I would rate it as three for those who avoided the university experience and so wouldn't have a strong reference point.

In the end I am not quite sure what Ben was seeking to achieve, a book touching on the university experience in relation to life seems to indicate that avoiding university is the responsible choice.
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4.0 out of 5 starsQuite uninspiring
By SAP on 19 Aug. 2012
Format: Paperback Vine Customer Review of Free Product ( What's this? )
This is about a drink binge and 20-somethings' relationships. It is actually written very well though you can tell from the language that this is written by an English literature graduate and aspiring or published poet - lots of long and eccentric words. Ignoring this, it is actually pleasant enough and even fun to read. However, it isn't a tale that will stay with me for long after putting down the book. I've read far worse drug-fuelled adventures.
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3.0 out of 5 starsComing of university age
By Amazon Customer TOP 1000 REVIEWER on 4 Feb. 2012
Format: Paperback Vine Customer Review of Free Product ( What's this? )
Eliot Lamb is out with friends to celebrate - and commiserate over - the last night of university life.
The book is divided into 3 main parts:
1/ the pub where they meet up and lay the ground works drinks-wise as well as building up to the big farewell to their favourite haunts as well as the closely knit friendships that they know will be difficult to maintain once they go their separate ways at the end of the night. This is also where he flashes back to the beginning of his time at university; how the group met and his background story.
2/ the bar where they proceed to get drunk and where some of the cracks are starting to show. They may be mates, but there are many secrets that may not bear the light of day (or strobe lights of the night as it were) and we are slowly let in on them as the story progresses.
3/ the club where they all are absolutely trashed and Eliot has finally built up the courage - and urgency - to confront the situation which might split the group for good.

I like the concept of the book, but unfortunately I had the feeling of "been there, done that" throughout. There were moments where it was fun to relive university days and have a good laugh at the fact that students still have the same "deep", pretentious, contrived and ultimately useless conversations as the drinks enter the system and I also think that he covered the awkwardness of how to combine the old life with his new friends and environment at university, but for most of the book - bar the last 30 or so pages - he seemed like a really disagreeable (if brutally honest) person and, if I'm honest, a navel-gazing recount of somebody's life at university really doesn't excite me much.Read more ›
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 starsenjoyed it

It's an odd one, this. Set over the course of Eliot's last night at Oxford University,with all the drunkenness that follows, this also jumps back to look over the events of the... Read more

Published on 23 Dec. 2013 by Laura Smith
4.0 out of 5 starsWell-written and highly amusing

All the stereotypes are there but portrayed vividly and in the right way, making this book on Oxford student life all the more amusing for its realism. Read more

Published on 23 May 2013 by Chris123
4.0 out of 5 starsAccurate Portrayal of University Life

It is evident that this a first novel by a recent English literature graduate - the structure is often clumsy and the wordplay unsophisticated. Read more

Published on 22 Jan. 2013 by EruditeBaz
1.0 out of 5 starsSimultaneously Boring, Annoying, and Too Clever By Half

I picked this up because I tend to like contemporary writing by young British writers, and this tale of the last night at Oxford sounded promising. Read more

Published on 28 Dec. 2012 by A. Ross
2.0 out of 5 starsNoughties

From the overview of this novel, I thought it would perhaps be an absolutely brilliant read- a small group of students on their last night at university go out, and we see the... Read more

Published on 9 Dec. 2012 by N. Wilson
1.0 out of 5 starsWhat a load of tosh!!

On the whole I was very disappointed.

The book starts well. It comprises of three cheeky clever chapters (pub, bar and club - the progression of a night out). Read more

Published on 14 Oct. 2012 by Fi Reviews.
3.0 out of 5 starsFun, but lacking in finesse

I enjoyed Noughties, insofar as it reminded me of university and captures quite nicely the overwhelming terror that greets most new graduates. Read more

Published on 11 Oct. 2012 by Francesca Rose O
4.0 out of 5 starsGood University Nostalgia

With Ben Masters' "Noughties" you get two stories for the price of one. On the one hand, the book is a fun and alcohol-ridden reminder of what it is to be a university student. Read more

Published on 15 Aug. 2012 by Carl Spencer
1.0 out of 5 starsZeros

Student days, more like Student Daze - Hahah ahah ahahah. This is as about as entertaining as Ben Masters' `Noughties' gets, a book that has so much navel-gazing that Masters... Read more

Published on 2 Aug. 2012 by Sam Tyler
3.0 out of 5 starsFor a niche market

In Noughties, Masters showcases some excellent writing and also some of the other kind -it's all mixed up together. Read more

Published on 10 July 2012 by Uncle Barbar

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