Offmessage

What can I say about a book that’s won the Booker that’s not already been said? Well, I guess I can tell you if it’s actually a good read or not for a start.

Vernon God Little is the story of Vernon Little, a dysfunctional and confused teen from a small town in the middle of nowhere (or Texas, to be more precise). The book starts at the aftermath of a highschool massacre which has been carried out by Vernon’s friend, Jesus… Not a particularly cheery basis to begin with, but unlike Coupland’s Hey Nostradamus the masssacre isn’t the core of the story. What is is the way Vernon’s life begins to go horribly wrong as the local people look for a scapegoat and choose Vernon (as Jesus’ only friend) as the obvious candidate. What follows is a tale of bad luck, prejudice, ignorance and naivety that leads Vernon down a path that will inevitably lead to his prosecution for taking part in the crime.

Luckily DBC Pierre isn’t looking for schmaltz or to tug on our heart strings - what he’s created is an incredibly comic character whose turn of phrase leaves you laughing out loud all the way through the book, even as the situations get more inescapable and (essentially) tragic. It’s Vernon’s language and outlook on life that get you yet another of those books where the character is in unstoppable decline.

I’ve read quite a few reviews that likened Vernon to “a modern day Holden Caulfield” (from Catcher in the Rye). I have to say that I think that’s bollocks. Vernon is a disaffected teen, yes, and yes, he does run away but that’s pretty much where the likeness ends. Vernon is a dumb, foul mouthed, small town kid - there’s no two ways about it. Invention is not his strong point and rather than distrusting the world around him he blindly assumes that people are to be trusted and that things will go his way.

Other reviews have talked about how DBC Pierre’s past life as a cocaine addict really comes through in the book. I even heard Mariella Frostrup go so far as to say that she could “hear the cocaine talking” in the “crackling narrative.” Again, bollocks. Drugs are not a topic of the book and the narrative (which does crackle to be fair) doesn’t begin to communicate anything about the experience of being a drug addict, metaphorically or otherwise. To be honest if I hadn’t read those reviews and didn’t know that the DBC stood for Dirty But Clean I would never have guessed that he was anything other than a writer with a fantastic eye for character and lot of childhood vitriol to unload.

This is a book about mid-American prejudices and greed, about the power of the media and fast food, about sheer dumb luck - good and bad - and ultimately it’s about a mother’s love. It’s amazingly funny, tremendously engaging and has a fantastic twist at the end. All in all it’s a great book. Should it have won the Booker? Not sure - I’ve not read the others in the shortlist but I’m afraid it’s not a patch on 2002’s winner Life of Pi, but then again not many books are.