Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About: A Novel (Paperback)

by Mil Millington (Author) "Where the hell are the car keys?..." (more)
Key Phrases: proper grass, Learning Center, Pacific Rim, David Woolf (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Millington's debut novel is an outgrowth of his Web site of the same name, on which he has been posting, for the last year, comic vignettes about life with his German girlfriend. Predictably, it consists mostly of comic bickering between first-person narrator Pel Dalton and his own German girlfriend, the insouciant Ursula Kretenjeger. The couple lives in a ramshackle, dirt-cheap house in "an area of the northeast of England so dire that the government was applying for a grant from the European Union for it to be placed under martial law" with their two young sons. Pel is something of a slacker ("for me, half-heartedness is a full-quarter too hearted"), the bumbling head of an IT team at the local university library. After their house is broken into, the marginally more conventional Ursula insists they look for something in a better neighborhood. House hunting, like most of the other plot turns in the book-which include Pel taking over for his mysteriously vanished boss and becoming the courier for a Chinese gang-is mostly an opportunity for lots of funny sparring on every subject from whose turn it is to defrost the refrigerator to whether "cock" or "dick" is the better euphemism for penis. Overall, the comic material is uneven; some of it is overwritten and a bit obvious, but at its best, Pel's narration is side-splitting. There are no shattering insights about men and women, but the book never pretends to be more than it is: an entertaining and genuinely funny romp through the trials of coupledom.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
The battle of the sexes continues unabated in British author Millington's quirkily comic debut novel. Pel and his German girlfriend, Ursula, have two children and any number of differences between them. He watches a lot of television and so can be depended on to know when Britain declares war on, say, Finland. Ursula is more outgoing and talks to the neighbors a lot, so she knows, for instance, what neighbor is harboring nuclear weapons in the garage. Pel works in the computer section of a library or, more properly, a Learning Centre, which is attached to a shiny new university whose students are recruited by a Japanese crime syndicate. What's more, the new computer lab is being built over the remains of an antediluvian graveyard, which raises the interesting issue of what to do with the bodies. Speaking of which, after a top administrator disappeared a number of years ago (and nobody noticed), her salary has funded many such valuable projects. Students of academic satire such as James Hynes's Lecturer's Tale will find much that might be familiar and funny here. The inevitable comparisons with Nick Hornby shouldn't detract from Millington's unique, laugh-out-loud take on sexual and academic shenanigans. For all large public libraries.
Bob Lunn, Kansas City P.L., MO
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Villard; 1 edition (January 14, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 081296666X
• ISBN-13: 978-0812966664
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (46 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #29,864 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars extremely funny book...., January 28, 2003

By	Ivan Alvarado (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is a must-have for those who are fans of millington's website "Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About" (http:/[...]). Indeed, it is not a copy of what is there on his webpage.

A word of caution for those who are unfamiliar with the author. I think it would be better to read millington's 'Things' website before reading this book in order to get familiar with Margret(Ursula) and Mil (Pel). This will really help the reader to appreciate the situations portrayed in the book and to understand the characters' behavior.

I don't think it is necessary to say that the book is extremely funny and very original. I should say, however, that millington is a clever and witty writer. I disagree with the reviewer who didn't like the end of the book. I think the end is very appropriate and, indeed, very satisfying.

If you are unsure about buying this book, check out his webpage first and see whether you like the style and humor.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This man is a genius, September 26, 2002

By	David Killick (Mountain River, Tasmania) - See all my reviews

Anyone who has read Mil Millington's web page or column in the UK Guardian will know that he is a brilliant writer of rare talent and wit. His tales of 13 years of quarelling with his (dearly-beloved) partner Margaret are among the funniest and most original works on the internet. This book is long overdue.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Things I have read that made milk squirt out my nose., February 21, 2003

By	Jay W Ward (Ft. Lauderdale, FL USA) - See all my reviews

Hands down the funniest thing I have read in a very long time. It nearly ruined my marrige. My wife would just be drifting off to sleep when I'd explode laughing over one of Mils' er... Pels exploits.

Buy this book, make someone you love shake their head in disgust.