Product Description

Psychologist Peter Kristal has a method for sorting out people's lives. By arranging their histories like the index entries in a biography - born, 1-achieves various things, 2-x - dies, x+1 - the sequences of cause and effect that have led to their particular neuroses is cunningly revealed. His technique gains him a modicum of success: a thriving practise in Chicago (a far cry from his native East Anglia), with a client list comprised of rising stars. But, Pete is constantly aware that his childhood friend, Richard Aloisi, is always one lap ahead of him. Based in New York, Richard is treating A-list celebrities and advising the NYPD on high-profile court cases. Pete would be the first to admit that his inferiority complex is the key bullet point in his life. But by concentrating on Richard as the source of his problems, he is blind to other factors which put both his life and the lives of others at risk-Never as obvious as it purports to be, "Bullet Points" is a wonderfully witty, pacey, clever novel that keeps you guessing to the very end. Twenty-three-year-old Mark Watson has imagined himself into the head of a middle-aged man with remarkable skill, creating a character whose destructive sense of inadequacy will touch a nerve in anyone who has wanted to be someone else.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #31325 in Books
• Published on: 2005-02-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Stephen Fry
'Woody Allen and William Boyd have had a bastard love-child and his name is Mark Watson'

Independent's '2004 Talent Special', Boyd Tonkin
Watson's command of the warped modern jargons of both celebrity and therapy give his book a rancidly comic flavour...

From the Publisher
Take Dave Eggers, Ben Elton and John Lanchester (in Debt to Pleasure mode) and you might get a sense of this brilliant first novel from a prodigiously talented 23-year-old stand-up comedian.

Customer Reviews

A total surprise
I bought this book because I had seen Mark Watson do stand-up comedy and was expecting more of the same sort of thing. Although the novel is very funny in parts, it's not at all the sort of thing you would expect a comedian to write. It's a dark, pretty tragic tale, and Watson does a very good job of capturing the thoughts of a middle-aged, disillusioned man. A really good tragicomedy.

Extremely Enjoyable
How refreshing! A genuinely multi-talented author! Comic commitments or not, I certainly hope to read more from Watson.
Bullet Points is very well written, surprising in the solemnity of the tone, and the humour is sparse. Don't believe the outside blurb; in no way could you call this a comedy novel, even one darkly humoured. This does not detract from the story, however. Our narrator remains a sincere, engaging character; his honesty (although we learn later he may not be as honest with himself as he thought) is a very likeable trait, and even when he behaves badly we cannot lose sympathy for him.
For a debut, this is alarmingly confident, restrained, well plotted. It reminds me of Tobias Wolff's work... no small praise indeed! If there is only one gripe I have, it's that the epilogue, although gripping (like a horrible car accident), is something I didn't see coming. At all. The final revelations should, perhaps, have been backed up by small clues in the re-reading of the novel, but there aren't any. Not to worry. It's still a powerful ending, and this novel is powerful stuff. Sombre, often horrifying, with a heavy tone, I highly recommend Bullet Points, but not as light reading as one might expect from an energetic young comic such as Watson.

Engaging, thought provoking and extremely enjoyable.
I purchased this book off the back of all the good reviews it has got, and as rarely happens in this case, it did not disappoint!
The reader can instantly relate to Peter (the narrator) and the relationship built between him and the reader as the novel progresses is a fascinating one. Essentially, he talks the reader through his childhood (briefly) and his subsequent life, pinpointing certain cases in his career. The ending is a shocker, but it is not wholly unexpected as any other ending would have been totally wrong for the characterisation of Peter. By ending the novel with a note from Richard, Watson leaves the reader questioning who was correct - the narrator who we have trusted throughout the book, or his friend who outshone him at every opportunity.
If I had read this without knowing the author, I would never have guessed it was a (then) 23 year old comedian! It is a hundred times more accomplished than most could ever hope for, let alone in a first book!