I had a little bit of difficulty getting into this novel, despite the story being about environmental issues- and despite most of the main characters being Australian. In one way that was the problem, they were Australian and they were stereotypical pie chowing Australians, except the hippies of course, who fell into their own clichs. I think the clincher came when he used the term 'saussies' as slang for sausages. Given, I was only an itty-bitty nine-year-old when this book was published, but I have never heard anyone use this colloquialism. The collectively agreed upon slang for sausage is 'snag' and even then any user would elicit an inordinate amount of inward groans. Unfortunately the entire book is riddled with this sort of banter, though on several occasions he does ridicule it himself. And this is his first novel after all, and for a first novel you have to give him props.
Like every other Ben Elton novel that I own you can see a dozen or so cat's ears defiling the pages because he has said something so poignant or witty or that I completely agree with that I don't want to forget where it is- so it shouldn't come as a surprise that I loved The Young Ones (but never watched Black Adder). This story begins in with two complete opposites in Western Australia- CD the poor, self centred wanker who thinks he is the greatest, and Sly, self made billionaire who doesn't even know where half his money is. Neither of them is likeable. None of them are except the psychotic war vet who rants and raves when looking at cherry tomatoes.
Sly is part of the Stark consortium, a group of mega-rich nut jobs who know the world is coming to an end and they have a nasty plan. CD, the girl that he is trying to seduce, a journalist, Aboriginals who lost their homes and a few crazy hippies are suspicious- what are they to do?
This is basically a precursor to This Other Eden, following the same topics and in a manner the same conclusions, but earlier and with different people- this is supposed to be the present after all and This Other Eden is some time in the future.
It's still worth reading, even if only for the times that you burst out laughing in public.
Labels: Ben Elton
