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The Humorist
by
Russell Kane
Survivor, genius, critic. Murderer.
Meet Benjamin Davids White, blessed since his infancy with an extraordinary gift: to understand humour at its deepest level. Yet Benjamin is cursed, too: in all his life, he has never laughed or smiled. At the height of his profession as a comedy critic, yet lacking any kind of human empathy, Benjamin discovers a formula that will allow h...more
Meet Benjamin Davids White, blessed since his infancy with an extraordinary gift: to understand humour at its deepest level. Yet Benjamin is cursed, too: in all his life, he has never laughed or smiled. At the height of his profession as a comedy critic, yet lacking any kind of human empathy, Benjamin discovers a formula that will allow h...more
ebook, 400 pages
Published
April 26th 2012
by Simon & Schuster UK
(first published January 1st 2012)
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Oh my Lord .... this was the second worst book that i've ever read , narrowly beaten to the top spot by Robbie Williams autobiography ( don't ask ..a present from a now ex-friend !! ) I barely made it past the first two chapters before giving up the will to live .... Russell Kane's on-stage flourishes may suit his live act but they do not translate well onto the page .. every single action is over embellished & sometimes i had to re-read a passage just to understand what on earth he was on a...more
Dull. Not particularly amusing or interesting. The problem with a character who lacks empathy is that you have to be a very good writer to make them likeable in any way. Kane is not a very good writer and I was bored of Benjamin White by about page 30. After a few more pages of Kane's torturous similes that don't work and his overly long sentences moving nothing forward, I wanted to put this book in the bin.
Despite the blurb going on about his "First Class Honours Degree", and job as a copy wri...more
Despite the blurb going on about his "First Class Honours Degree", and job as a copy wri...more
I wanted this book so badly to be good. Parts of it are quite beautiful but Russell Kane clearly doesn't know what he's doing. It seems to me that he doesn't read enough, like he doesn't know what good writing reads like. A bit disappointing really because you can see from some of the book that he /could/ be a very good writer, so it just makes me wonder why he isn't? If he writes any more books then I might give them a try but really, this one isn't worth the time.
I struggled with this. I love Russell Kane as a stand up, but found this book to be hugely pretentious, like he wanted us to know that he knows big words and philosophy. Shame, because I really wanted to like it.
I found it compelling to start with but once I put it down and picked it up again I found it dull, unsympathetic and unengaging. I didn't finish it.
Hmmm...this book is incredibly dark and freaky. I really enjoyed parts of it but found the writing style a bit pompous and overly (not attractively) complicated.
I was interested in the analysis of comedy and enjoyed reading someone picking apart what they do for a living. However i felt at times there were too many references to comedy and comedians I am not familiar with for me to really get into it.
Not terrible but not great either.
I was interested in the analysis of comedy and enjoyed reading someone picking apart what they do for a living. However i felt at times there were too many references to comedy and comedians I am not familiar with for me to really get into it.
Not terrible but not great either.
Just couldn't get into it.
Hmmmm...very clever. Not sure what Benjamins motivation was though ?
Dull book!
Just couldn't get into it at all... Put it down after the third chapter & sent it back to the library the next day.
Sorry but not to my liking!
Apr 27, 2013
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Apr 10, 2013 03:44am
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