false 11711 15 The surprise winner of the 2003 Man Booker Prize, DBC Pierre's debut novel, <I>Vernon God Little</I>, makes few apologies in its darkly comedic portrait of Martirio, Texas, a town reeling in the aftermath of a horrific school shooting. Fifteen-year-old Vernon Little narrates the first-person story with a cynical twang and a four-letter barb for each of his diet-obsessed townsfolk. His mother, endlessly awaiting the delivery of a new refrigerator, seems to exist only to twist an emotional knife in his back; her friend, Palmyra, structures her life around the next meal at the Bar-B-Chew Barn; officer Vaine Gurie has Vernon convicted of the crime before she's begun the investigation; reporter Eulalio Ledesma hovers between a comforting father-figure and a sadistic Bond villain; and Jesus, his best friend in the world, is dead--a victim of the killings. As his life explodes before him, Vernon flees his home in pursuit of a tropical fantasy: a cabin on a beach in Mexico he once saw in the movie <I>Against All Odds</I>. But the police--and TV crews--are in hot pursuit. <p> <I>Vernon God Little</I> is a daring novel and demands a patient reader, not because it is challenging to read--Pierre's prose flows effortlessly, only occasionally slipping from the unmistakable voice of his hero--but because the book skates so precariously between the almost taboo subject of school violence and the literary gamesmanship of postmodern fiction. Yet, as the novel unfolds, Pierre's parodic version of American culture never crosses the line into caricature, even when it climaxes in a death-row reality TV show. And Vernon, whose cynicism and smart-ass "learnings" give way to a poignant curiosity about the meaning of life, becomes a fully human, profoundly sympathetic character. <I>--Patrick O'Kelley</I> 426037 2003 Vernon God Little total:2303|5:407|4:759|3:693|2:278|1:166| 2303 7872 3022 288 1 8 false false Thu Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Wed Dec 19 12:39:04 -0800 2007 Wed Dec 19 12:45:28 -0800 2007 more...]]> 5 8 false false Sun Jun 29 13:20:10 -0700 2008 Tue Jul 08 13:36:57 -0700 2008
The common thread of said dismissals is a denunciation of 'Vernon God Little' as a unrealistic por...more...]]> 1 5 false false Mon Nov 05 03:51:24 -0800 2007 Sun Jun 21 12:23:30 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 2 false false Fri Jan 09 17:32:15 -0800 2009 Wed Jan 07 07:06:04 -0800 2009 Fri Jan 09 17:32:15 -0800 2009 Infinite Jest was too big to fit in my laptop bag), and already rather more than halfway through. It's Huck Finn on acid, and the author's technical skill is impressive. Who would have thought you could come up with a joke whose main point is a confusion between ...more...]]> 3 2 false false Fri Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Thu Aug 21 03:41:35 -0700 2008 Thu Aug 21 03:52:13 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 3 false false Sun Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Fri Jul 06 00:56:19 -0700 2007 Tue Jul 17 06:14:57 -0700 2007
What a great ride, our hero the adolescent sane lad in the world of overweight and overwrought large Texan ladies, this book has mo...more...]]> 0 2 false false Mon Jul 02 02:39:36 -0700 2007 Mon Jul 16 07:35:27 -0700 2007
If you are not got acquainted with American slank, you will feel a little bit annoyed by the excessive use of American teenagers lingo. Obviously, this is a novel that ca...more...]]> 3 2 false false Tue Apr 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Mar 31 12:57:29 -0700 2008 Sat Apr 26 09:26:31 -0700 2008
this novel won the booker prize in 2003, and a lot of people see...more...]]> 4 1 false false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Thu Dec 18 18:45:15 -0800 2008 Thu Dec 18 19:14:14 -0800 2008
It's wickedly funny ride as the author leads you through ...more...]]> 2 1 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Tue Jan 01 12:54:01 -0800 2008 Wed Jan 02 18:47:11 -0800 2008 more...]]> 5 1 false false Tue Apr 07 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Apr 03 10:09:13 -0700 2009 Tue Apr 07 13:52:39 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Mon Sep 21 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Sep 17 06:23:58 -0700 2009 Thu Sep 24 11:19:51 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 1 false false Mon Feb 11 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Mon Feb 11 07:29:26 -0800 2008 Mon Feb 11 07:32:11 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 1 false false Sat Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2005 Thu Jan 10 22:38:57 -0800 2008 Thu Jan 10 22:43:49 -0800 2008
I thought this was a brilliant debut novel. Pierce created an amazingly compelling character and voice -- very compelling narrator -- an average, unfortunate and moderately likeable kid, and I felt compelled to feel empathy fo...more...]]> 4 0 false false Sat Mar 29 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Fri Nov 28 13:45:05 -0800 2008 Fri Nov 28 13:51:58 -0800 2008 more...]]> 5 1 false false Tue Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Aug 23 16:51:49 -0700 2009 Fri Sep 18 14:35:19 -0700 2009 pacted. I don’t know. Fucken waves, that’s all I know. Waves that bowl me over and tumble me head over fucken heels. Drowning m...more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Jan 09 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Thu May 21 09:19:07 -0700 2009 Thu May 21 09:19:25 -0700 2009 After the direness of the Alan Hollinghurst reread, this one came as an absolute pleasure. Despite the back drop of a high school shooting, Vernon God Little is a rollercoaster of laughs as the young protagonist attempts to evade the law, being stitched up by the local con artist, whilst playi...more...]]> 3 0 false false Sat Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Fri Nov 14 10:28:20 -0800 2008 Tue Dec 16 08:28:58 -0800 2008 more...]]> 1 1 false false Sat Mar 22 07:14:24 -0700 2008 Sat Mar 22 07:15:28 -0700 2008 4 0 false true Mon Jul 06 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Jul 12 21:27:00 -0700 2009 Fri Aug 14 10:33:45 -0700 2009 Summary: Vernon Little is a perceptive and cynical teenager mentally stagnating in his small town of Texas. He is falsely accused of committing a school massacre after bearing witness to his friend's crime. Vern's luck and publicly perceived innocence bobble when a slimy media man hoping ...more...]]>