Product Description

Tibor Fischer's second novel: an entertaining and often dazzling novel

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #57148 in Books
• Published on: 1995-10-16
• Binding: Paperback
• 311 pages

Synopsis
A novel about a British philosopher who teams up with a one-armed French convict to rob banks, from Montpellier to Toulon. Tibor Fischer has also written "Under the Frog", which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize.

About the Author
Tibor Fischer was born in Stockport in 1959 of Hungarian parents. Brought up in South London, where he now lives, he was educated at Cambridge and worked as a journalist. He was shortlisted for the Booker Prize for his first novel, Under the Frog, which also won the Betty Trask Award, and he was nominated as one of Granta's Best of Young British Novelists.

Customer Reviews

Thought and Farce
Having re-discovered the fact that Mr Coping once had a flair for critique, and given a spare evening, I thought I'd write some more. The Thought Gang. It's hard to think of a book from which I have gained more simple enjoyment; as a wild and bizzarrely entertaining journey through the detruitis that litters the human journey to enlightement it has few peers. Rather surprisingly given the subject matter, the ease with which I could identify with the travails of the main character was one of the book's strengths. I'm pretty sure that after reading this most of us could see ourselves robbing banks, if we got into the wrong crowd. Nothing lets this book down, but - and I don't give 5 stars easily - it simply doesn't contain a reality check; the main character is far too jammy for the novel as a whole to be thoroughly believable and for me to emote, in spite of the odd moment of true pathos. But then maybe I'm just an embittered cynic...

This is my favourite book so far
Of the many books I have read so far, I have come to the conclusion that "The Thought Gang" is the best. It's the mixture of philosophy, comedy and improbable situations, all told in such wonderful sentences. It's been a year or so since I last read it and I have so far owned about 6 copies, as I keep giving them away to friends, urging them to read it too. Every time I summarise the plot to people, they fall about laughing and say "That would make a great movie!" Is anyone up to that challenge I wonder?

Get zet!
Apart from the best ever opening paragraph I have ever read and the fact that every page (except 1 short one) has a word that begins with the letter Z, this is a very funny, very eloquent book.
Read it and weep (with laughter).