Category: Humour

Sweet Sweet Revenge Ltd

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Sweet Sweet Revenge Ltd is the latest from Jonas Jonasson, author of The 100 Year Old Man who Climbed out of a Window and Disappeared, Hitman Anders and the Meaning of it All and The Girl who Saved the King of Sweden. Jonasson writes quirky feel good novels that suck you in and his latest is no exception.

As the title suggests this is a story of revenge, Jenny has been swindled out of her inheritance by her husband Victor who has also abandoned his son Kevin in the Kenyan Savannah. Kevin eventually returns to Stockholm where inevitably he meets Jenny and then a trail of events is set inn place to get revenge on Victor. Add in an ex advertising executive who has set up a revenge business and the Masai warrior who adopted Kevin in Kenya and you have a chaotic cast of characters scheming and stumbling through the plot.

If you have read any of Jonasson’s earlier stuff you will love this, if you haven’t you are in for a treat.

4/5

This One Sky Day

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I am not sure how to describe This One Sky Day by Leone Ross except to say that it is magical in every sense.

Set on an island (possibly in the Caribbean) populated with characters that each have a magical characteristic or ability, This One Sky Day is based on the events of a single day with the hero preparing a wedding feast for the president’s daughter while trying to find the spirit of his dead wife and connect with his one true love, meanwhile strange things happen to the women of the island and revolution is brewing.

Confused? Well don’t be, just sit back and marvel at the story telling, the magic, the beautiful characters and wonder how it will turn out. If you crossed the magical realism of Marquez or Allende with a touch of Shakespeare you might get to This One Sky Day.

Brilliant! 5/5

The Liar’s Dictionary

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The Liar’s Dictionary by Eley Williams is very very wordy. If you love words you may well love this novel about the creation of a dictionary, I didn’t, I gave up before the 3rd chapter.

For me, this was too wordy, too self indulgent and trying too hard to be clever. That said lot’s of critics have been very impressed and it will probably turn out to be a cult novel which will mean that I have to pick it up and give it a second try!

The Riddle of the Fractal Monks

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The Riddle of the Fractal Monks by Jonathan Pinnock is a quirky comedy mystery. It combines some psychopathic monks with a fascination for fractal mathematics with a hapless pair of heroes who seem to be immune to any of the ridiculous situations that they fond themselves encountering. They are all searching for a missing PhD thesis by a friend of the heroes, but really who cares?

I can’t think of a redeeming feature to this novel, apparently it is part of a series which I will avoid.

1/5

The Good, the Bad and the Little Bit Stupid

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The Good, the Bad and the Little Bit Stupid is the second novel by Marina Lewycka. If you have read and enjoyed A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian you are going to love this.

George is approaching his 80th birthday, he has left his wife Rosie after an argument over Brexit on referendum night and is living with their next door neighbour Brenda. He seems to have won the jackpot on the Kosovan lottery but he isn’t sure that he entered the lottery and he can’t remember the password to his bank account to access the money. What follows is hysterical chaos as different money laundering gangs are desperately trying to gain access to George’s bank account and Rosie and Brenda are battling over George’s wandering affections.

This is charming, funny and well observed. Highly recommended

4/5

Alice in Brexitland

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Alice in Brexitland by Lucien Young and Leavis Carrol is an amusing if somewhat predictable riff on Alice in Wonderland.

Alice dozes off on the afternoon of 23rd June 2016 to wake in a strange world of Brexit characterisations where she meets the Corbynpillar, the Cheshire Twat, Humpty Trumpty and the Queen of Heartlessness. If you were/are a Remainer you may find this mildly amusing and reinforcing of your views, if not you probably shouldn’t waste your money.

2/5