3/5 Superbly read audiobook however poorly advertised as funny. Who the hell thinks the themes in this book constitute hilarity? Nothing about this book is funny.
Rather, it is a sobering account of a thirty-something Army captain who starts a relationship with a seventeen year old British anarchist. They seem drawn together and deeply in love despite the age difference; the vast divide in their political views and moral values; only for Jack to upend poor Polly’s life when he abandoned her in the night a few short months later in favour of his career. Returning to his one true love 16 years after-the-fact he feels compelled to unburden his past two decades of angst onto Polly and speak to what he felt was the crux of their differences and he is astonished by Polly’s declaration that she had felt raped by Jack during their last night together. Though she admitted their last encounter of love making was consensual at the time, she asked him if he had told her that he planned to leave the next morning and never see her again, did he actually think the seventeen year old girl would have agreed to a two-hour long session? Jack felt sick but persisted in wanting to unburden himself. While Jack, now a four star general, felt the need to communicate his confused and intertwined bundle of mixed feelings about the role her influence played in his life he finally explained to her that he came to kill her and bury any possibility of their sordid affair derailing his ultimate promotion. Just as he had screwed the silencer onto the end of his gun and was about to shoot her, Polly revealed that they had had a baby together; a son, named Collin. Shocked at the possibility of having a 15 year old son, Jack asks to see a photo. Polly loved Jack and wanted to keep his baby but in the end admitted to aborting their child. Power hungry Jack, full of nothing but pride and ambition, planned to erase the one and only life he had loved but just as he drew back on the trigger, a bang at the door interrupted them and Peter lunged to attack Jack. Jack turned the gun on the bog and killed Peter instead during which time Polly was able to pull her panic alarm summoning the police. Puzzled and frantic, with moments to decide, Jack chose to kill himself in light of the altered circumstances, ironically opening up their history to the world. Reminded by Jack’s second attempt to ultimately sacrifice the memory of their love and end her life, Polly could now move on.

witty and engaging; from an intelligent Brit with lots of social comment buried in the plot

First time I've read Ben Elton, a love affair between a couple who are worlds apart, a stalker, and some very astute insights into human nature and politics. Quite a twist although I did see it coming eventually.

For me, this book was short on the usual humour and seemed full of repetition.

I really wasn't sure about this book initially as it does take quite a long time to get going and Polly's voice is initially whiny and irritating; put simply she seems to enjoy playing the victim. When her phone rings at 2:15am she initially worries that it is her stalker and as there is, as yet, no law against Peter's actions and nobody seems to take his behaviour as being a threat to her there is every chance it will be. Cowering in her bed she listens as the answering machine picks up and it is worse than she could have thought - sixteen years and two months ago she had an ill-fated love affair and now Jack is very definitely back.

Much of the book is set in flashback and deals with the Greenham Common protest camp that sprang up around the storage of Cruise Missiles at the base. By setting Polly and Jack on opposite sides of the camp fence Mr Elton gets to provide us with a nice chunk of political satire. Despite these very politics forming part of his act at the time of Greenham Common he manages to give a balanced view of both the protestor's take on the situation and that of an American career military man - the fact he is American is important. It also covers feminism, liberalism and the changing attitudes of society within the 16 years that form the setting of this book.

Whilst being undoubtedly political in nature there is enough humour to dilute some of the more tub-thumping sections. Strangely it is Jack's arguments that carried more weight with me and I found Polly to be rather woolly in her cognitive processes and whilst this was mainly endearing when she was 17, now she is in her thirties it just made me want to slap her. There are nice little side steps covering the rash of sexual harassment complaints levelled against members of the American Armed Forces and their President (Nibs made me laugh quite a bit) and Jack's explanation for them (boys will be boys) whilst feeble was relevant to how many people viewed them at the time.

Alongside the political activism there is the story of Polly's modern day stalker, Peter. He is clearly a very disturbed man and whilst only accidentally coming in to Polly's orbit he is genuinely obsessed with her. He is also far more dangerous than anyone knows.

The various strands weave together well and the time and narrator shifts blend seamlessly together. Altogether an accomplished bit of writing that thoroughly entertains and gives a good waft of nostalgia for those readers old enough to remember this turbulent time.

I loved this book! So funny, sad too, and with a brilliant ending which I didn’t see coming. I read this over 2 days because I couldn’t put the book down.

Would have given this one star but the ending raised it to two. Not funny, long drawn out story, just to get a slightly better ending in

As I mentioned to a friend, I wanted to read this book because I felt I could use a little humour. I picked it up second hand for $3 and apparently got an early edition. The dust cover on the back contained reviews for Elton's previous book Popcorn. Those reviews seemed to imply that Blast from the Past was also a comedy.

There were funny moments, but it certainly wasn't a bag of laughs. Maybe I missed the point, but whoever decided to put reviews from Popcorn that contain lines like "The funniest and most readable novel you're likely to see this year" on the back of n  Blast from the Pastn mustn't have read it. Then again I haven't read Popcorn so maybe people really do find this sort of thing hilarious.

The story is about a 17-year-old feminist, war protester (Polly) who during one summer falls in love with a 32-year-old sexist stereotypically-Republican army man (Jack) stationed in England. Jack breaks Polly's heart by abandoning her for his career and 16 years later tracks her down to complete some mysterious mission.

I had no idea what I was getting into, I'll be honest. The end was a pretty big shock given the context in which this novel was presented. And I am honestly dumbfounded. All I can say for certain is that it wasn't funny, it was rather sad and more than a little f'ed up. Had I had a better clue about what kind of story it was I might have felt differently, so I took this into account when I gave it my rating. I did, up to a point, like it. But... yikes.

The least favourite of the Elton books I have read. This one just didn’t feel like it had enough in it to make it fulfilling. It was actually quite frustrating it parts and I almost skimmed through sections to find some action.
Still not a bad book, but not particularly recommended.

My first Ben Elton. Entertaining enough, though a little far-fetched.

This book is funny and scary and deeply sad. At its core, it is a love story about how a ruthlessly ambitious army man has a passionate affair with a teenage radical pacifist. The affair changes her enough to the leave the movement and changes him enough to become a little more sensitive. They meet again, decades later, and end up comparing their lives. The question that creates the tension is whether they still love each other and whether they changed each other enough.
SPOILER
Unfortunately, the protagonist discovers she can still care deeply for this man and be repulsed by so much of who he is and what he stands for. The tragedy is that he changed her just enough to be unhappy with her choices and she changed him just enough that he needs to eradicate their past.
Thank goodness she finds someone who can reconcile her with her past.

I liked the fact the blurb gave nothing away about the plot (apart from the 2:15am phone call). The story unravelled nicely and the climactic end scenes although dubious in their credibility - gave a good final punch to the story.