false 379336 0316830321 9780316830324 122 37 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174319695m/379336.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/379336.by_George_A_Novel 117159 Wesley Stace 599 146 5 1 false Fri Oct 10 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Oct 20 14:41:47 -0700 2008 Mon Oct 20 14:49:27 -0700 2008
Better than Hanif Kureshi and Something to Tell You. Better than Edwyn St Aubyn's Some Hope. I fell in love with this book - in fact, I fell in love with the characters in this book and genuinely did not want it to end.

Stace does not redefine English literature with this novel. It's subject matter, dealing with an eccentric family at the wrong end of English Show Business in the tacky and amateur period of mid-century Britain is not the most appealing of subjects or periods, and the premise, that half of the story is told by a ventriloquist's dummy, all adds to the impulse to walk on by when you see this book on the shelf. Please don't.

OK, the Dummy. I am not spoiling it here, but just to get it out the way, this is not some form of magical realism or a cheap trick. It is in fact the autobiography of the ventriloquist himself and his terribly tormented life - he expresses himself as if his dummy was writing. So there.

If you've ever laughed at a Carry On film despite yourself, if you grew up in the 70s or 80s, or indeed in the 20s or 30s, if you remember fondly all those matriarchs from your childhood that seemed to populate the whole country but have now died and moved on - then this is the book for you. And if you are after the most agreeable and fantastic escapism a book could ever give you - then buy this book. I adored it. You will too.]]>