1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best I've Read In A Long Time, February 28, 2006
This is without a doubt one of the best books that I have read in a long time- even I enjoyed the ending. The story takes place in the foreseeable future, sometime during our lifetime. The world is finally coming to an end through human stupidity, and people are bored with hearing of it, waiting impatiently for it to take its final breath so they can begin the Rat Run. Plastic Tolstoy is running eighty percent of the world media; Nathan has a dangerous script that preaches the truth; Max is a super celebrity who gets and erection at the thought of his own performances; Thor is the 'last sane man' on the planet; Rosalie is a greenie on a mission to save the world. Claustropheres (self contained geodesic domes) are popping up all over the world, perhaps the only answer to the survival of an eco-Armageddon- or perhaps it is traitorous to the earth, accepting the world is dying and not doing anything about it. On one hand they present a survival of the species, self-preservation; on the other their creation is destructive. Would you buy one? Or after much debating would you forego this luxury? And what could you afford?
I had to admit, sadly, right at the beginning that I would have been one of the first to purchase a Claustrophere had I the money, because I am a dooms-sayer, the end of the world is always nigh.
Ben Elton is entertaining, often eliciting random giggles from me at the most inappropriate moments- you wouldn't believe the looks that you get when you are sitting quietly at the bus stop reading then sudden burst into spontaneous laughter. He expresses things that I have often thought in such a poignant way that I don't feel so crazy.
His style is a little haphazard, and British. I found the chapters within chapters easy to read, enticing even.
We should all know that I can't read a book without guessing the ending a few pages into the book, sometimes even before I start reading, and this was no different- but I wasn't at all disappointed. I ENJOYED THE ENDING. It made sense; it was all so logical, right and amusing. He made his point.
Disappointingly I would probably still build a fall out shelter or buy my own Claustrophere, all the while attempting to better the environment, but that is just because I am crazy.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
From the mind of the Eighties, December 1, 1999
Out of Ben Elton crawls some of the most wonderful and fantastic prose I have ever read. What if Pynchon, instead of losing track of some of the balls he juggles and readers in the process, instead kept a strict schedule of events and knew how every word should sound before he ever wrote a book? Ben Elton is fantastic; I enjoyed his television venture(s), but I am in love with his prose. This story is wonderful, I am giving it to at least one person this holiday season. Elton has a profound grasp on the American and british psyches... let us hope that he never chooses to relax his hands.
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good, but not his best work, April 28, 2004
This book is a good read, but don't expect the brilliance of Ben Elton's earlier work. The plot is not too sophisticated and the book lacks the humor I had come to expect from Ben Elton.
The book is a must however for anybody remotely interested in marketing.
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