Genius
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Grantchester Grind is a fantastic piece of writing. Witty, dark, nostalgic, this is the great Tom Sharpe at his brilliant best. I haven't enjoyed a book so much in ages. Can't recommend it enough.
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A Real Grind !
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Unnecessarily convoluted and desperately contrived with some rather banal un-Sharpe childish characterisations. The settings and "play" are there, but not up to his usual intricate and amusing standards by a long chalk. Earlier works, which are most highly recommended, especially the Wilt series, grasp the simplicity of the "every day" aspects of life and turn them into hilarious confusion and misunderstandings. I've laughed out loud whilst reading them on Train journeys, drawn the expected strange looks in response, but like to think those who asked what I was reading are now Tom Sharpe fans as well. If they've gone on to get the same smile (to say the very least) from the visions and feelings (such as of having your children jump on your bed and then your catheter bag, sending the contents back whence it came)... Then SAY NO MORE !!!
Sharpe at his best is unbelievably good... but Grantchester is a faded Grind. Sorry Tom.
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Grantchester Grind
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I have been a fan of Tom Sharpe's for many years, and have read all his work,my favourite book being 'the throwback'.
It was well documented that Tom went through 'writers block' and I believe I'm right in saying that this book was written after this period.
Having settled down to read this with a good deal of expectation, to say I was disappointed would be an understatement.
Grantchester grind was a sad follow-up to Porterhouse blue, a book I personally really enjoyed - although not my favourite.
After the black humour of Tom's earlier works, including the wonderful South African books, this was a pale imitation of their quality.
If requested to suggest a TS book for someone, this particular book wouldn't even be on my radar....
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Tom Sharpe's worst book
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I have read most of Tom Sharpe's books and I normally enjoy them immensely. "Porterhouse Blue", while not as funny as Wilt and Blott, was still satire of the highest calibre, but its strong point was the plot, which had me reading the book in record time. Then came volume 2, and at 490 pages it is quite a volume. The problem is that it never really got off the ground. The plot is okay but mostly boring and I found at times I had to force myself to pay attention. It's a good book for practising speed reading - that's what I did. The plot is one of Sharpe's more complex ones, and it builds up expectations for a monumental climax. But instead it simply fizzles out and leaves one feeling cheated. I am willing to put money on it that after 450-odd pages, the author realised that he couldn't bring it together and then lost interest. So he made X die, Y retire, and Z live sort of happily ever after. All within the space of the last four pages. If you also hate the bombastic arrogance of the Americans, you are in for a treat though. Sharpe makes no secret of his sentiments (or lack of) in this respect. He treats his American characters in a noticeably more venomous fashion than his British (or African) ones. But I felt cheated afterwards. The book is not up to Tom Sharpe's normal high standards and is most certainly not a worthy successor to "Porterhouse Blue". As I've said: stick to Wilt and Blott and avoid disappointment.
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Disappointing
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Having read several of Tom Sharpe's novels and found them to be very funny, I decided to try one on audio cassette and I chose Grantchester Grind, narrated by Jonathan Cecil. I wish I hadn't. I thought the story was very long-winded and I struggled to get to the end of the tapes. In fact, I fell asleep several times whilst listening! I wasn't very impressed with Jonathan Cecil's narration and his extremely poor attempt at Cadzovine's American accent really grated on my nerves and I found myself unconciously trying it out to see if I could do any better. And I could! This affected the whole thing so much that I found it distracting. I think a better choice of narrator (one who could carry off an accent other than that of an ex-public school pupil) would have made this experience much more enjoyable and perhaps I might have appreciated the storyline more too.
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