“They were a team now, him in his perfect dinner jacket, her in a seriously fabulous dress, dining at a billionaire’s restaurant, drinking champagne and drifting towards having sex in a suite that overlooked Lake Geneva. She was a freakin’ Bond girl.”
What a difference a few weeks make. Remember the confusion around gender that seemed to have the knickers of baby boomers, including one of my ancient relatives, in a twist? When men were terrified of being silenced by cancel culture for saying something deemed offensive and they couldn’t understand why. Ah those were the days.
Ben Elton has always been a hilarious writer and yet this one just left me a little cold. Older men trying to come to grips with the concept of gender fluidity without having a heart attack; such a setting seems so remote. The notion of course is simple really. People are people and how they feel about themselves is their real human right. The idea of feminine or masculine is so often a construct of our environment. I get that here Elton is making fun to both acclimatise and entertain his readers and I don’t think I’m the target audience.
As a story there are moment of fun. Although, having watched Benedict Cumberbatch in Brexit, last week made me realise how close to the truth much of the novel becomes. The manipulation of the public through rage and emotional appeals expressed within the leave campaign aligns strongly to Malika’s tale in the book.
Perhaps I would enjoy this book more in less uncertain times. Perhaps the world we know today is a product of the age of outrage and the lack of trust in institutions. When this all boils over I might enjoy this one more.
4 out of 5 – murder mystery + social satire, doesn’t equal upbeat times.
No comments:
Post a Comment