I don’t know much about Craig Ferguson, but I know he is is something of a favourite with my people, and his novel was centre square in CBR10 Bingo , so here we are.
This book is billed as “Bawdy, joyous, messy, hysterically funny, and guaranteed to offend regardless of religion, race, national origin, sexual orientation, or profession…” on Amazon.ca. Maybe I am just not in the mood for books that are guaranteed to offend. Maybe I am not inclined to find a book with multiple male protagonists, selfish and off-balanced and with women only serving as a plot device, as hysterically funny or sympathetic. Maybe it’s me.
The book gives us four men, two American brothers and two Scottish friends, who seem to fall into some sort of success without really trying. None of them seem to have a lot of depth to them, seemingly driven by lust or greed or despair to do something. I don’t care about what happens to any of them, not that the reader ever really gets a sense of who any of them are outside of celebrity obsessed workplace sexual harasser, selfish animal porn addicted religion opportunist, etc. In the middle of the book, there is a story told to one of the only women characters that involved a brutally murdered and raped young girl, whose murderer is found by a Crusader night so he can save his falsely accused caretaker who turns into a secret sex kitten at night, to his endless delight. That was enough for me. I am not offended, but iff this book was supposed to be a satire or an allegory or a reflection on something deeper, I am too tired and disgusted to appreciate it. I am a few chapters from the end and I am compelled to write this review now because I am pretty sure I am not going to be able to force myself to finish it.
The novel itself is quite fast to read, with the chapters relatively short and self-contained, so that’s a plus. I know Ferguson is an intelligent man and I am sure he is a talented writer, but this book is absolutely not for me at this time and place. It is a book I have read, mostly. That’s it.
CBR10 Bingo Category: #CannonballBookClub