I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: MY MORNING JACKET-Okonokos (2006).

[READ: Summer 2006] Utterly Monkey.

I have a huge fondness for British pop lit. If I go back through the years, I can see a vast number of imports: Nick Hornby, Colin Bateman, Hugh Laurie (before he was House), Stephen Fry (while he was acting with Hugh Laurie in the Jeeves and Wooster series), and Ben Elton. So, in keeping with this trend I get to Utterly Monkey. My first thought was that I didn’t remember a thing about it, but that’s not true. I remember that “utterly monkey” was a phrase meaning things were out of control. I remember it being something of a thriller with bombs and gangsters. And I remember enjoying it very much while reading it. There were a lot of nice details about the Northern Irish locales, and of course, some nice snogging. I just checked the Amazon review of this, which I suppose is cheating, but I see the book is listed as “lad lit” which sort of makes sense, but since I feel that the “lads” don’t really read, I’m not sure if it’s a very effective marketing tool. Plus the write up in Wikipedia includes Nick Hornby, whom I include in this review but not as a frame of reference for this book. So, I disagree with the term. This definition of lad lit from Word Spy is a bit more on target for this book. A fascinating thing about this author is that he is married to the highly regarded and utterly non-lad-lit lady Zadie Smith, whose On Beauty is on my list of to-reads.

[Update July 9:] I was disappointed with this write up, so I thought I’d add a few things. Danny, the protagonist, is a lawyer who fled Northern Ireland. Geordie is his mate from way back who tracks him down in his new “posh” digs in London. Geordie brings trouble with him, and generally causes a bit of mayhem. It’s funny to remember back on the book now and think of the small scenes, like the party, the return visit to Northern Ireland, the funny office interactions, all of which are warmly detailed, and then realize that the book ends up with a terror plot to blow up parts of London. It’s a bumpy ride from here to there, but as I recall, I enjoyed most of the trip. My lack of details is telling, that it’s not the best book I’ve ever read, but it was fun and it’s worth a read, if this sort of thing is your cuppa tea.