A Twenty-First Century Comedy In The Presence of Death

Winner of the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Award of Comic Writing 2003, and named one of the 100 Best Things in the World by GQ Magazine, the riotous adventure of Vernon Gregory Little in a small-town Texas and beachfront Mexico mark one of the most spectacular, irreverent and bizarre debuts of the 21st century so far. The only novel to be set in the barbecue sauce capital of Central Texas, Vernon God Little suggests that desperate times throw up the most unlikely of heroes.

'There is never a page of Vernon God Little without a very good joke, and never a page which does not leave you gasping to find out what happens next...In a just world, this ridiculously funny first novel would come free with every television set...Not since reading John Kennedy Toole's masterpiece, A Confederacy of Dunces...have I laughed so much.' Craig Brown, Mail on Sunday

'The novel's literacy references are American classics: Vernon's narrative, full of itchy injustice, recalls Catcher in the Rye. Like a Huck Finn tanked up on six packs, Vernon in his innate innocence exposes the nature of American experience...the vicissitudes of Vernon reveal not just a rebel for the Eminem generation, but a boy of such sweetness, he makes death row a respectable address.' Marianne Brace, Independent

'The debut of one of the most original and seriously funny narrative voices in recent times.' Sean O'Hagan, Observer

'A showpiece of superb comic writing...Out of the detritus of a morally bankrupt society, Pierre has fashioned a work of comic art.' David Robson, Sunday Telegraph

 
I've heard so much about this book that I thought I'd better give it a go. I love it when writers make you laugh whilst telling an incredible story, and from all accounts this is a very funny book. Only time will tell if it's to my taste, but I hope it is.