Funny but childish
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This book had many funny moments and I found myself laughing out loud at the dry, British humour. However, it was also very childish with a below average style of writing, better suited to a younger generation.
All-in-all its an easy, unchallenging read, perfect for pre bed-time.
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Hilarious Riff on the Royals - and Their Subjects
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This quirky, biting satire begins with the Royal Family having been exiled to council housing in what is called an Exclusion Zone - a place where the slappers, the morbidly obese, the criminal and other undesirables are sent. The Queen cares for her ailing husband and despairs of her dysfunctional brood. The caricatures are vividly drawn here, and only Queen Elizabeth and Prince Charles' long-suffering wife, Camilla, come off very well.
I found something hilarious on almost every page - Sue Townsend has a wicked wit and, though I am a recent transplant to these shores and thus have probably missed some cultural references, I was nonetheless entranced by the storyline, and the foibles Miss Townsend gave her characters. Charles dithers, Camilla consoles, Anne swears a lot, Andrew's gotten chubby and chases girls with wild abandon, William is earnest and Harry's a thug. Throw some unexpected characters into the mix (along with some great cameos from the likes of Stephen Fry and Jeremy Paxman) and you've got a page-turner. Not "great literature," but I couldn't care less - life is too short to read books that enrich without entertaining. There were some scenes that were movingly written, and one that had me crying uncontrollably - that Townsend can inspire such a range of emotion is very telling and a compliment to her literary skills.
Another, interesting, surprising aspect was the integral participation of the community's pet dogs, and the stunning plot twist that they pull off - dumb animals, indeed!
I only gave the book four stars instead of five because of some rather glaring editorial errors that leapt off the page at me and took me out of the story. A good proofreader/editor would have solved that problem and made this a five-star novel.
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The smoking chicken
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Continuing the story of the Royal Family exiled to a council estate in the Midlands (see The Queen and I), this is another satire on British life which is both funny and sympathetic towards its main characters. It's sharp and doesn't spare the follies and neglect perpetrated by recent governments but deals almost tenderly with those poor afflicted ex-royals.
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Doesn't Quite Work
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What consitutes humour is obviously down to the individual. Other reviewers have described this book as a yawn. Not funny at all, they say. However, I found it laugh out loud funny on numerous occasions throughout. Sue Townsend's sense of the ridiculous is a delight and certainly works for me.
I also find it strangely admirable and somewhat surprising that despite her lampooning of the Royals they still end up being sympathetic and strangely likeable on the whole.
But the book doesn't work as a novel somehow - more like an extended comedy sketch. It feels very loosely ploted. There is a lack of description and of narrative drive. It meanders towards a conclusion. There are loads of unresolved plotlines. More character driven than plot driven but few of the characters' dilemas are resolved by the end.
The Diary format of Adrian Mole seems to suit Sue Townsend's strengths much better than the novel format if this one is anything to go by.
An enjoyable read if you don't expect too much.
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Plenty of ideas which I could almost imagine happening in the future!
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The book carries on from The Queen and I and tells the next chapter of the Royal Family and their lives as ex-monarchs. England is under the rule of the Cromwell Party, and is the nanny state from hell! All 'undesirables'- teen mums, criminals, morbidly obese and the Queen and family live in an exclusion zone, complete with ankle tags and identity cards. What struck me most of all about the story was the 'accuracy'(obviously only time will tell!) of Sue Townsend's predictions which must have been based on all the clap-trap which political parties spout now, from the proposed id cards (which are used to suppress the residents throughout the book)to the not-too-far-fetched stepladder bill! The Big Brother world is very much alive and kicking, co-ordinated by a major computer system called Vulcan, which used in conjunction with the id cards and tags, can give every scrap of info about a person, from their favourite food to the names of their pets. The author consciously makes mention of George Orwell's novels, I believe to deliberately draw the feeling of wretchedness at the idea of the world becoming like this from the reader's very soul!I probably enjoyed this book more for the exploration of this hellish world, than for the story itself, which I felt took second place to the social commentary in this book. My only complaint was that Prince Phillip played no active part in the story as he is in a living-dead state in a horrible nursing home, which was a shame as I vaguely remember him being quite a good laugh in The Queen and I (but don't quote me on that!)but I loved the way the other royals were characterised, especially Princess Michael of Kent. Overall I really enjoyed the book-it's easy to read, amusing and despite the scary ideas, light-hearted.
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