A White Merc with Fins [Paperback]

James Hawes (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 25, 1997

The dazzling debut of a new voice in fiction, this is the funny, unexpected story of a balding, thickening 28-year-old who, having spent the bulk of his twenties avoiding a career in the quasi-black market of London's temp agencies, now finds himself not only without a job, but seriously without prospects. How he solves this problem is the action that propels this witty, acutely observant and captivating first novel.


From the Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Aided and abetted by a dysfunctionally cool cast of Londoners and a slick, accelerated plot, Hawes's debut crosses British post-Thatcher class warfare with the all-American bank-job crime novel. Our nameless "Lower M.C." (Lower Middle Class) narrator is 28, a university graduate and utterly without prospects. His despair over achieving Middle Class Heaven drives him to concoct a baroquely risky scheme (always referred to as the "Plan") to rob a film mogul's "private bank," using the titular white Merc for the getaway car. The Plan casts Suzy, a Scot hedonist, as the dame and driver; the Spanish immigrant Chicho as the muscle; and Brady, an Irish Quentin Tarantino groupie, in a diversionary role. In the spaces between send-ups of English class stratification, Reservoir Dogs fans, the "Friends of Mrs. King" (gay opera insiders) and the psychopathically patriotic IRA (all of whom play crucial, if diverse roles in the Plan), Hawes makes a small point about disaffected individuals via the hero's mouthing-off monologues. Although also meant partly as hip social satire (with such smart-arsed lines as "Crime is just Nature's way of rightsizing economic differentials"), the dominant tone is that of an amoral, foul-tongued, intelligent comedy. The novel has a speedy metabolism that is indeed reminiscent-as it no doubt strives to be-of a certain American film director's pulpy pace.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal

This novel is narrated by a balding, middle-class man who, in his late twenties, is suddenly faced with his own mortality and mediocrity. To avoid the truth about himself, he develops a plan to rob a private bank that caters to the whims of the British ruling class. To pull off the robbery, he brings together three other characters, including a former dancer named Suzy, with whom he becomes sexually and emotionally obsessed; the services of the terrorizing IRA; and a stolen white Mercedes. The peculiar characters and absorbing action make this witty and satirical drama entertaining despite its weak conclusion. The narrator's unflinching insight into the British contemporary social scene?and ultimately our own?effectively jumps from the comic to the tragic. If you close this provocative book after the opening, where one of the characters overindulges readers with his "F-word thing," you will pass up a major debut novel of the year. Highly recommended ?David A. Berona, Westbrook Coll. Lib., Portland, Me.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Vintage (February 25, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 067977615X
• ISBN-13: 978-0679776154
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,958,963 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely the greatest book I've ever read., January 31, 2004

By 

Brent A. Anthonisen "Johnny Sideburns" (Alpharetta, GA, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A White Merc with Fins (Paperback)

This is an amazing book that hits its pace immediately and never lets up. It's a tremendous take on contemporary British society delivered in a similar fashion as the mid-'90's films of John Hodge, Andrew MacDonald and Danny Boyle, as well as the novels of fellow Britwits and pop culture addicts Irvine Welsh and Nick Hornby.

However, as good a writer of personalities as Hornby doubtless is, there is NO WAY he could have written this book. "A White Merc With Fins" has a very developed and intricate plotline that moves despite sufficient character development that never actually becomes the story itself.

The story itself deals with a stew of complexities involving some of the issues evident within mid-'90's London; drug use, sexual identity, racism, politcal activism, and beneath it all the unspoken hang-ups of class identity within a modern society that strives to distance itself from a history of strict classism...but can't quite seem to find the plot in doing so.

Any number of these traits would make an interesting enough story on their own...but in this book they serve as mere sandwich spreads over the meat of Hawes' actual story. The novel takes place within a matter of days leading up to a bank heist planned by a man (the book's narrator) who, approaching the sell-by age of thirty, has accomplished absolutely nothing during his adult life. He has no proper home of his own, no career, no plan for his life...and he sees, in the glances afforded into the window of a walk-up across the way from his own quarters, the life that awaits him lest he do something drastic to change his fortunes.

He has no plan for his life...so he develops "the Plan" to rob a bank.

Naturally.

Why didn't I think of that?

"The Plan" involves the narrator, a small circle of close friends including his new girlfriend with a fondness for 501 jeans that accentuate her perfectly flat stomach and, uh, questionable bodily grooming habits, a Quentin Tarantino fetishist, the brother of an ex-girlfriend who dreams of opening a bake shop in his hometown of Zaragosa, a local gangstar, a fat Welshman from the coalmines who is delightfully gay, a terminal AIDS patient otherwise thriving as a money launderer, a half-Jewish skinhead, and the Irish Republican Army.

If all that isn't sufficient to stoke your curiosity to the point of giving this book a read, I simply don't know what could possibly be wrong with you...pick it up AT ONCE and have at it; you will not regret it.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely beautiful pulp, March 20, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: A White Merc with Fins (Hardcover)

I read this book in one sitting, drinking coffee and chuckling the entire time. The book isn't really deep, i.e. I know no more about big metaphysical things like "the nature of the mind" or "the human condition is pseudopoverty" for having read this book. But it was a fun little book with several real-close-to-brilliant moments, e.g. one female character's flat stomach fetish, the Tarantino impersonators, and the whole bit about transmission types being masculine and feminine. Also, the "fat Welsh tart" is funny without being a parody, something that is all too rare in literature these days. I think the best way to put it is that it is too good to read on an airplane, but not a classic.

5.0 out of 5 stars one of the funniest serious books I've read, October 30, 2011

By 

Terry Barham "wilburfierce" (Brevard ( near heaven ) NC) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: A White Merc with Fins (Hardcover)

I often don't find typical "humorous" books at all funny. Personally I need to find something with wit, intelligence and a good dose of irony. Written in 1st person, the protagonist is allowed to ruminate, often with self deprecating humor and some surprising insight. Insights about his past, present, and very uncertain future, combine with a zany plot slowly revealed to make this a "page turner". Highly entertaining. Read it !