Illiterarty.com Book reviews and blogs by Bridget

Y'know how all my book reviews start with "y'know how?" Y'know how I recently accused Chuck Pahlaniuk of writing a novel that oversold its blurb.. y'know?

So you know those old penguin paperbacks? Y’know, the doorstopper-like novels of the Austens of the nineteenth century world? The Brontes with their page on page of women in bourdoirs waiting for suitors to marry them, so excited by the “suitability” of the match that they are constantly “ejaculating?” (Seriously, all Austen heroines ejaculate an average of 74 times throughout any novel!)

You know when you read a novel and get disappointed particularly because the blurb made it sound so damn great?!?

Ah, the first novel of Ben Elton... comedian, comic genius behind such hilarities as The Young Ones and Blackadder, and, after this and some of his other gems, man with an environmental conscience. I loved Stark so much that before long my copy had no front cover... and then slowly dissolved from over reading and over lending. Granted, I was an idealistic young thing at the time with an environmental preoccupation... but still, that’s a fairly good sign. Furthermore, proud Fremantle rumour has it that Mr Elton scribed this book while sitting at Gino’s making notes on a paper napkin, and while I’m not overly convinced that this is the absolute truth, there are some characters lurking about the pages of Stark that made me think that maybe Ben was drawing inspiration from some real-life members of the Gino’s community.