fayula's Review of DBC Pierre, Vernon God Little
11th Feb 2004
Overall Rating
- Value for money
A booker prize winner.
Bad Points
Just not interesting enough considering the topic.
General Comments
'Vernon Little God' the title is the most interesting thing about the book. With the Colombine tragedy still fresh in mind I thought it would be a fictional account into the minds of those who could do such a thing and why. The story starts of well enough by setting the scene of a high school shooting, one dead suspect and one suspect who denies involvement, but then goes off into a boring thread about his uninteresting and seemingly uncaring family life. The media involvement has potential but never seems to take hold. There is no passion about the subject and the odd sexual reference is to spice it up a bit. How on earth did a french writer manage to jump on the american band wagon to write this story and then win the booker prize for such an average book.
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Members' Comments onfayula's Review
leven1
on 10th Mar 2004fayula
on 15th Mar 2004The point is I found this book boring.
leven1
on 16th Mar 2004Fair enough, although thats not the point your review makes.
NewAmusements
on 9th Dec 2004The author is, I believe, Australian, not French. Just to be pedantic....
leven1
on 23rd Dec 2004Yeah the author is Australian born to English parents but was mostly brought up in Mexico and Texas! I think there is some French connection in there too but I can't remember what.
Vernon God Little Summary
The reviewer has completely missed the point of the book. It is not meant, as they complain, as a look at the whys and wherefores behind a tragedy such as Columbine.
Rather it is a ironic and humourous exaggeration of life, as seen by 15 year old Vernon, in small town America following such an event. Most of the charatcters are completely self absorbed in an unrealistic way. This is the point. While no town could ever be like this many aspects of the characters (to a much lesser extent) do exist in many small communities. The humour is in the way Vernon deals (or fails to deal) with the snowballing and ridiculous events around him.
The reviewer seems to have mistakely bought this book expecting an insightful and serious look at a massacre. Surely by taking a few minutes to read the sleeve they would have realised their mistake.