Brilliant

I have never read a book by Sebastian Faulks that I didn't love and this one I a masterpiece.
Inventive, witty and with brilliant parody some chapters had me laughing out loud. And even my teenage son raised a grin at Johnson's soccer report.

Some funny and clever stuff here as long as you are already familiar with the writing style of every author he parodies. Worth reading 'Shakespeare's' Basil Fawlty monologue if nothing else.

Pistache, by Sebastian Faulks

T.S. Eliot: reflects that it might have come out better in limericks

Four Quartets
For an Anglican, time is too vast;
A rose or a vision can't last:
It's a moment in history,
Our grace and our mystery,
And the future is lost in the past.

pistache, pis-tash n  a friendly spoof or parody of another's work. [ Deriv uncertain. Possibly a cross between pastiche and p**stake.]

Includes
Franz Kafka: tries to keep up with the world of Mr Gates
George Orwell: confronts the real 1984
Virginia Woolf: goes to a hen-party
W.B. Yeats: reports on the 2006 Ryder Cup at Kildair
The Brontës: place some lonely hearts ads
Lewis Carroll: moves Alice into the 1960s
Thomas Hardy: is sent to cover the big match
James Joyce: makes a best man's speech
D.H. Lawrence: writes a brochure for 18-30 holidays
Dylan Thomas: writes a cereal advertisement
Enid Blyton: see the Famous Five grown up
Graham Greene: tries a story through a woman's eyes

Lots more . . .

This is not a book for the faint-hearted or the downstairs lavatory. It is a book for the bedside table of someone you cannot live without.

Hilarious. Absolutely worth the hour or two it took me to read through it all, then I had to find people to read my favourites to. Incredibly spot on prose imitations. Loved the Chaucer poem about Geri Halliwell.

'Pistache' was incredibly amusing. The idea of Faulks writing a short parody in the style of numerous authors on a range of hilarious topics was brilliant. I would say 80% of the parodies were extremely funny, whilst others were just clever with their words and showed the breadth of the author's talent. Such a great idea though. Well done Sebastian.

This is a brisk and often witty collection of affectionate pastiches of many of the luminaries of anglophone literature. Faulks is often thoughtful and effective in his transplantation of famous writers into new milieux or forms; for example, Austen's reflections on and ridicule of the fashions and social behaviours of her day make her a surprising but appropriate match to the yuppie preenings that are the focus of 'American Psycho'.

Whilst much of the collection can raise a titter of two, there are instances when the form and content are less effectively married. I found this the case for some of the poetry; for example, Faulks' rendition of Larkin's lines on the Queen Mother's birthday attends more to the poet's strict rhyme schemes than to his mastery of both rhythm and metaphorical transitions. Similarly, his reworking of T.S. Eliot's oeuvre into curt limericks, whilst amusing, falls short of the retention of substance achieved by Wendy Cope's lyrical summaries. However, the advantage of this book is that each pastiche is never more than a page or two long, so such missteps are soon left behind.

Overall, this is an enjoyable diversion for anyone who thinks the anglophone canon deserves a bit of gentle teasing.

I adore SF. And R4. This is a very funny little book.
Toast

A while before Faulks had written a new James Bond novel he’d already done a ‘pistache‘ (pastiche, piss-take, whatever) of Ian Fleming, one among many other short pieces for BBC Radio 4’s n  The Write Stuffn that are collected here as flash fictions and poetry written in the styles of others. I can appreciate perfectly about half of them (and they are all indeed rather clever), but that half also reveals my own tastes and prejudices: Martin Amis has his first day at Hogwarts (probably my favourite), James Bond goes shopping, Dan Brown visits the ATM, Enid Blyton’s Famous Five are drafted by the Anti-Terrorist Squad, George Orwell confronts the real 1984, Harold Pinter writes a TV sitcom, Shakespeare composes a speech for Basil Fawlty... and on and on. The mind does boggle a bit at how diverse Faulks has shown he can be, and stay funny and mostly original too.

Clever and funny - not all of them land, but enough of them do to make this an entertaining and fun diversion.

A solid 3.5 stars. This book was a gift from a teacher and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was very funny and a nice change from a novel. A quick read that can be spread out, which I like.

Some very funny bits, but some appalling classism. Made me reconsider Sebastian Faulks.

I do dimly and affectionately remember 'The Write Stuff' which this is based on. Some of the entries are hilarious, particularly Shakespeare as Basil Fawlty and Mr Micawber on the Rolling Stones, the Beatles and Elton John.