Slow to start but full of laughs
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This is the first book I've read by Matt Beaumont and despite a rather slow start it turned into a great read. Murray is diagnosed with testicular cancer and told he may not have long to live, so he throws away his boring old life to embark on a serious of increasingly unbelievable encounters and farcical events. His newly acquired best friend Vince provides the perfect foil in Murray's exploits along with some side splitting one-liners from three year old Bubbles. This is good, light-hearted read for anyone who thinks they would like to be someone else for a day!
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A very funny book about terminal cancer, but too much farce at the end
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Despite the cover, this book has nothing to do with disco.
After the 'novelty' aspect of his first novel "E" (a story told entirely through e-mails), Matt Beaumont took a more straightforward approach in "The Book, The Film, The T-Shirt", and then in this book. Since then he's had a couple more published, "Where There's A Will" and "Small World", but in my opinion this is his best book to date.
As in the previous books the lead character is a 20/30-something working in the media, but unlike previous books the story is not obsessed with office politics and laughing at the media industry. Murray (the lead character this time) is a product photographer who after being dumped by his girlfriend, discovers, or rather decides, that he has terminal testicular cancer, and after a hospital mix-up makes plans for a future in which he only has a few months to live. How does he treat the people around him, does he tell his ex-girlfriend, how should he behave, how can he possibly pretend to have any more interest in his job? Serious issues, handled with a great sense of humour. The first half of the book contains some excellent writing and even convinced me, as someone of the same sort of age, to get myself checked.
Unfortunately the second half of the book deteriorates a bit into farce. Murray borrows money from a Mobster, runs away with the punk trouble child of a local MP whom he met when she was burgling his flat, and totally stuffs up his job. It all gets a bit ridiculous and at the same time rather less funny.
A disappointing second half to a very promising book, but worth buying for the first half alone. Oh, and blokes- check yourself down there.
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Amusing read
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I was sceptical that it was possible to write a comedy about terminal cancer but Matt Beaumont's done a pretty darn good job at it.
Despite the fact that novel does get a little far fetched at times I really enjoyed reading it - and became quite unsociable on holiday by having my head in it non-stop.
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Funny about terminal cancer ???
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You wouldn't think it were possible to write a funny book about terminal cancer, but Matt B pulls it off. This book has some hilarious laugh out loud moments and I found the characters fairly well developed. I didn't enjoy it as much as "e" but it's well worth a read.
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Some really funny characters
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I always put this author in the "trying too hard" to be clever category but this is a gem of a novel. The right mix has been achieved between slapstick and a ripping story. The central figure is Murray who experiences much more life after being told he is terminally ill with cancer than he has done in the rest of his miserable, manically clean existence. However, the characters that did it for me were Vince and his daughter Bubbles. Vince is perfection as a "creative" from advertising land whose heart is definitely in the right place even though he is a mess. Anyone who has ever spent a night out with an advertising creative will guffaw at Vince and his young daughter. If there is ever a case for a spin-off book this is it; I found myself wondering what was in store for these two at the end of the book.
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