Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #459489 in Books
• Published on: 2003-01-20
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Review
'Witty and charming. Astonishingly good. Quite irritating infact' - Angus Deayton 'This book is the best thing to come out of Holland since tulips' - Harry Hill 'A fine stand up comic has turned into a first class, laugh out loud novelist. Read and enjoy' - Barry Cryer 'This book is so charming and funny. A genuine page turner, I read it on holiday and missed big chunks of Venice' - Sandy Toksvig 'I read this book in one sitting and absolutely loved it. Funny, sweet and sharp, with a wonderful story' - Graham Norton "The characterisation is warm, the dialogue is witty, and the plot - friendly, feel-good fantasy... will make you smile' - The Guide 'Warm and romantic... his book, like his stand up, is laden with wit and painfully acute observations' - Graham Norton 'Hilarious modern tale fairytale' - Hello 'An LA to London love story to rival Notting Hill' - Heat

Barry Cryer
'A fine stand up comic has turned into a first class, laugh out loud novelist. Read and enjoy'

Harry Hill
'This book is the best thing to come out of Holland since tulips'

Customer Reviews

Hit, miss, maybe...
When I see a book with so many glowing reviews from household names I start to worry... over the years I've discovered that this doesn't mean the book will be any good - just that the author has plenty of mates who are household names.

Don't get me wrong - I didn't dislike the book - it's just that it shouts a little too loudly about how brilliant it is without actually... y'know... being brilliant.

It was a strange read for me... I've never read a book which was so split down the middle between great ideas and terrible ideas... I'd find myself going 'that's brilliant!' at some points and then saying 'Jesus, how did that get in?' at others.

But Holland is a likeable author and good company - he just needs someone to cross out a few of the bad jokes and fill in some of the huge plot holes. (I only have the tiniest knowledge of agents, the movie world and so on, but I was absolutely shouting out at some points 'NO! THAT CONVERSATION WOULD NEVER HAVE HAPPENED LIKE THAT!' or 'FOR GOD'S SAKE, MAN - THAT JUST DOESN'T MAKE ANY SENSE!')

All in all, this was *so* written with the film version in mind, that the fact that it's a book surprises me. But it's so well-intentioned and goodhearted and *screaming* 'like me' that I can't bring myself to give it less than three stars.

Unfortunately not only in America
I can't understand the comments made by the other readers below.
Whilst being a fan of Dominic's stand up and radio shows, I honestly thought this was one of the worst books I have ever read.
It is facile and pointless without the redeming feature of being slightly funny.
All the characters have been designed with the forethought of the story being made into a film - which I belive is going to happen. As you read it, it feels like a screenplay - I want to read a book, not the layout for a film.

If you want to read a GOOD book by a comedian, try Talk of the Town by Ardal O'Hanlon which is darkly humourous - a black coffee to Holland's banana milkshake of a book!

did I read the same book?
I've just finished reading this book and I'm amazed at all the glowing reviews on its cover. I just had to log on and check what other people thought and it seems like I'm - almost - alone in my opinion that this book is just really dull. I've seen Dominic Holland as a stand-up comedian and he is very funny but none of this humour comes across in the book at all. I wasn't expecting Tolstoy, just a bit of entertaining fluff, but I'm afraid it didn't even come up to that standard. That the story is incredibly predictable from page one isn't really a problem, sometimes the journey can be a pleasure even when you know where it's going. There was no humour, the writing was clumsy, the dialogue unrealistic, the characters were so one dimensional I really didn't care what happened to them. After labouring through the first half of the book I ended up skim-reading the rest and that's only because I hate buying books and not reading them. Truly, where did all the great reviews on the cover come from? I really think I must've been reading a different book.