Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #429019 in Books
• Published on: 2003-01-30
• Binding: Paperback
• 240 pages

Synopsis
Why does Mr Kipling bake such exceedingly good cakes? Find out the answer to this and more in this journey into the epicentre of the consumer world. This is a place of weirdos and saddos, of over-indulgence in CDs and lottery tickets, and of Michel Foucault and a fluffy pink bunny rabbit.

Customer Reviews

Surrealistic Nonsense
Thoroughly enjoyed the effervescent "Corpsing" and thought that I would sample one of Toby Litt's earlier works to see if it would provide similar entertainment , but "Adventures in Capitalism" turned out to be a different animal altogether. The title was a bit of a misnomer as none of the stories provided any great insights into late 20th Century capitalist culture. I had expected a humourous Bill Bryson-esque expose of the vulgarities and iconoclasms of Western society but what in fact were provided were a series of surreal,incongruous and ultimately pointless short stories which generally failed to enlighten or stimulate. However some of the fantastic narratives and imagery were entertaining; the Fluffy Pink Bunny Rabbit, The Betamax Boy and the excellent Launderama were my pick of the bunch. But many of the stories were turgid and silly. HMV, Cosmetic , Wagamama and Michel Foucault were prime examples.

"Adventures in Capitalism" is readable and not unentertaining, but it is a bit puerile and probably best avoided.

Pretentious waffle....
...and I don't refer to this review! I'm a fan of Toby Litt's work, especially his latest Finding Myself (which has echoes of Ten Little Niggers), but this reissue of his early short stories showed that every writer has to start somewhere. This collection is a book of forced, hackneyed short stories that owe more to Litt's attempts to capture the consumerist zeitgeist than any budding literary talent.

If the couple that were sitting opposite me as I threw the book across the train ever read this - read it for yourself and see! Otherwise, don't bother.

Excellent; a fascinating new talent
Toby Litt's short stories range from pure capitalism (after winning the lottery, a man refuses to believe people and only believes adverts) to urban fantasy (a ghost in a laundrette). His writing is deft and rapid-fire; the way in which these stories flow so eagerly from page to page will make it hard to put this book down. The shorter stories are delicious little comtemporary fables, to be savoured while sitting on buses or in the middle of shopping trips; the longer ones are clever and original uses of short fiction. Buy this book today, if you value your status as a consumer!