Funny, bizarre, crazy wild ride through the way the media works and how we all bow down to it....murder and mayhem included.

Witty, satirical, just what l expected from Ben Elton.

Well constructed black comedy.

Pulp Fiction in een boek

Ben Elton must have realized he let it go too far and that two teenagers who drop out from school when they were 13 could not possibly be able communicate like that so he made a desperate effort to explain it through his narrator. Well, apparently it is because they watch a lot of television. They watched television all the time and that made them smart. Good news, if watching television makes you so smart we have a generation of geniuses entering the labor market right now.

Esta entrenido y es corto. Buen libro para un viaje en avión y espera en el aeropuerto.

Smacked of Tarantino. Gratuitous violence, not overly for me.

Y... qué se yo. La verdad que no me gustó mucho.
El libro no es malo, pero simplemente no me pareció un gran libro.
El año pasado leí High Society, también de éste autor, y realmente me gustó mucho.
Pero éste libro simplemente no es my cup of tea.
Están buenos los temas que plantea pero tampoco me pareció demasiado original. Ningún personaje me pareció precisamente memorable o agradable. Y odié el final. Qué sé yo. Los finales feos no son lo mío. That's just me.

This novel, by comedian Ben Elton, was very thought provoking. It looked thoroughly into the topic of violent films, and whether or not they influence violence in the real world. I myself do not think that violence in films is responsible for real violence - I've seen plenty of violence on the TV, and I am not likely to go and start killing people in real life. Elton evidently has the same views, as he portrays his protagonist, a director by the name Bruce Delamitri, as the victims of media and disgruntled relatives seeking to find someone to lay the blame on. But, as Bruce himself states on page 19; 'Human beings aren't Pavlov's dogs. You can't just ring a bell and make them salivate. They don't simply do what they see. If it were easy to manipulate people, no product would ever fail and no government would ever fall.' Bruce is particularly annoyed to hear that a couple of lunatics have gone around copying violent scenes from his movies in real life - which prompts his speech about the influence of films. At first he pays little attention, but when he is held hostage by the two criminals and forced to 'admit' that he was responsible for their crimes, thus granting them a lessened sentence, the line between fact and fiction becomes considerably blurred for the protagonist.
The book focuses on the theme of taking responsibility for your actions, and not attributing them to fictional violence. Elton does not state definitely, however, who was to blame for the massacre (though he obviously implies it is the criminals, Wayne and Scout), and I believe this was because he wanted to stress the fact that no-one in the novel, in fact, wanted to take responsibility. Wayne and Scout didn't want to take responsibility for fear of execution; Bruce didn't want to take responsibility because it was not his to take; and the media definitely did not want to take responsibility because, even thouhg they shaped the situation, they convinced themselves that they were mere observers. This ambiguity is stated in the final line of the novel, 'So far no-one has claimed responsibility.'
However, the reason I have taken a star away from this novel is because, after reading similar books by Elton such as Dead Famous, his characters seem to resemble each other a little too much. For instance, no character in this novel is particularly likeable; Wayne and Scout kill people, and Bruce is arrogant and self-obsessed. These are trademarks of some of Elton's other characters, and they are not interesting enough to sustain for very long.
That said, this book is about a very interesting idea and concept, told by a very humorous person, and examines all angles of the topic being discussed.

Fun, tacky, but provocative. Felt like a Tarantino movie but in the best way. Was lent to me by a student and I appreciated the direction the story took. Some parts were a little drawn out but overall had some compelling ideas.

Brilliantly written as always. Un-put-downable. But I found the general cynicism, and my intense dislike of all the characters, just too much to stomach. I need a bit of light at the end of the tunnel.

Previsible y, en general, poca cosa.