Really twisted, fragmented short stories which (except for two) interlink through the characters and their unusual lives. It’s an extreme view on society, quite shocking, at times surreal, beautifully written and horribly haunting. One of the most extraordinary things I’ve ever read.
‘As news of a terrible plane crash echoes through his office, adulterer Martin Dempsey thinks only of defenestrating himself now his "too beautiful" colleague Lucy has humiliatingly dumped him. Several postcodes away, taxi driver Eddie gropes his mother-in-law in her lounge while his unwitting wife is locked in the loo. In a nearby wine bar Emily gets, you know, drunk out of her mind. Later she sleeps with a down-and-out, and, as worse leads to worst, is reacquainted with the fact that she still has an eight-year-old son somewhere whom she "forgot" to abort. This worthless bunch of characters join others in a series of loosely linked stories of modern life that sometimes meander tantalisingly into the surreal, while never coalescing into something that could be called a novel. Rod Liddle, indubitably possessed of powerful writing skills, might be trying to show us how morally degraded our society has become. If so, he certainly succeeds. Guardian Review
Author
About Rod Liddle
Rod Liddle resigned as editor of BBC Radio 4's flagship Today program last September after a row over impartiality in his regular column in the Guardian. Told by his bosses he must make a choice, Liddle opted to quit the program and keep his newspaper column. Liddle is now associate editor of The Spectator. He recently presented Seven Ways to Topple Saddam on BBC2 and programs follow for Channel 4 on the Church of England and pornography, along with a BBC politics show.
