Ben Elton, Blast From The Past

By far my favourite of Ben Eltons books. Blast From The Past has an original plot as always but with a personalised twist. Anyone reading this book can put themselves completely in any of the characters positions. You can see a bit of the madness that love can cause in life and how difficult it is to leave it behind when you have to.

Here you have someone following their heart and another following their head, both causing a lot of pain for others and neither being happy. An achingly sad novel with a slither of potential happiness breaking through the loneliness at the end.

Blast from the Past by Ben Elton has one dominant theme: love is not the strongest thing in the world. Fear, greed, selfishness in desires can contaminate love and turn it into an obstacle instead of a reward. The main characters, Jack and the insane character, both of whom are selfish, self-centred and greedy, are used to illustrate the theme. In the end they do not get what they want. Instead, they both come to consequences as bad as death itself - they hurt themselves and the woman they loved. They might have had the one true happiness in the world but the nature of humans prevent them from doing so. Humans cannot be satisfied with what they already have; they are constantly wanting more and more until true love is lost. Use the issue of divorce as an example. When I was young my father left my mother. Why?> Why did he hurt us? Why did he destroy our blissful lives? Was it because he valued us and our affection for him? No... it was because he wanted MORE and MORE and MORE. Therefore, he abandoned his happiness and hoped to find more but doom awaited him instead. In life, we should but be too greedy. We should consider the emotions of others. Everybody can want more but we have to control these desires. Greed can only lead to destruction... destruction of yourself and of the ones you love. If you truly love someone, then recognize love for it's true value.