Book 44 of 2009
44. The Perfect Fool by Stewart Lee
Not only is Stewart Lee the most original stand-up comic around, and a controversial playwright and director, it turns out he's a bloody good novelist too. It's so unfair that one man should have so much talent when most of us have none to speak of.
I had a couple of false starts on this novel a few years back. I think I was expecting the usual comedian's book: a heelarious satire on relationships and the dysfunctional male. But it wasn't like that at all. Expectations in tatters, I put it down and read something else instead.
But I'm glad I came back to it. Once I'd shifted up an intellectual gear it made sense. This is a serious novel by a serious, and ridiculously good, writer. Yes, it's funny, but peopled with characters you care about that have rare psychological depth (mostly dysfuctional males, as it happens, but still) in a rollicking good story that is, essentially, a Grail Quest. (Dan Brown, this is how to do it.) It is lyrical, poignant, intriguing and one of the better books I've read in 2009. Recommended.
Not only is Stewart Lee the most original stand-up comic around, and a controversial playwright and director, it turns out he's a bloody good novelist too. It's so unfair that one man should have so much talent when most of us have none to speak of.
I had a couple of false starts on this novel a few years back. I think I was expecting the usual comedian's book: a heelarious satire on relationships and the dysfunctional male. But it wasn't like that at all. Expectations in tatters, I put it down and read something else instead.
But I'm glad I came back to it. Once I'd shifted up an intellectual gear it made sense. This is a serious novel by a serious, and ridiculously good, writer. Yes, it's funny, but peopled with characters you care about that have rare psychological depth (mostly dysfuctional males, as it happens, but still) in a rollicking good story that is, essentially, a Grail Quest. (Dan Brown, this is how to do it.) It is lyrical, poignant, intriguing and one of the better books I've read in 2009. Recommended.