Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7710 in Books
• Published on: 2005-06-09
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
If there's any justice, it is only a matter of time before the work of the curiously-named DBC Pierre becomes essential reading for anyone interested in cutting-edge writing today. Vernon God Little is a book that has a totally individual (and very quirky) identity, from a writer with a finger on the pulse of contemporary society (particularly its less comfortable aspects). Pierre is also a satirical writer in the vein of such talents as Terry Southern, and there is a manic quality to his work that makes the experience of reading him both disorienting and exhilarating. As a first novel, this is a remarkable achievement.

Teenager Vernon Gregory Little's life has been changed by the Columbine-style slaughter of a group of students at his high school. Soon his hole-in-the-wall town is blanketed under a media siege, and Vernon finds himself blamed for the killing (rather than the real culprit, a friend of Vernon's). Eulalio Ledesma is his particular nemesis, manipulating things so that Vernon becomes the fulcrum for the bizarre and vengeful impulses of the townspeople of Martirio. After a truly surrealistic set of events, Vernon finds himself heading for a fateful assignation in Mexico with the delectable Taylor Figueros (everyone in the book has names as odd as the author's).

By setting his novel in the barbecue-sauce capital of Central Texas, Pierre ensures that his narrative is going to be some distance from naturalistic writing. And as a scalpel-like satirical incision into the mores of contemporary America, reality TV and media hysteria, Vernon God Little often reads like a fractured modern-day take on such novels as John Kennedy Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces. --Barry Forshaw

Andrew O'Hagan
'You know what this terrific book is like? It's like The Osbournes invited The Simpsons round for a root beer, and Don DeLillo dropped by to write a new song for Eminem.'

Jonathan Lethem
'Read Vernon God Little not only for its dangerous relevance, but for the coruscating wit and raw vitality of its voice...'

Customer Reviews

Brilliant setting
This book should have been titled "When Media goes bad." VERNON GOD LITTLE reads like a combination of some McCrae novel (BARK OF THE DOGWOOD) and a DeLillo fabrication set on paper (UNDERWORLD) only with a dash of Flannery O'Connor. Weird and wonderful, this is the story of Vernon Gregory Little's life in a small Texas town. Complete with the usual Southern weirdos we've all come to know and love (CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES) it rings at once true and also over-blown. But there's a method too the madness in this surreal absurdist but true-to-life tale that could have happened. With our protagonist's life completely no upsidedown because of a school shooting, the media descends vulture-like, on the town and uproots all sense of normalcy. With excellent precision the author shows up the ugly side of human nature, and the uplifting aspect that can occasionally emerge. A tale told by not quite and idiot, this is a fantastic foray into the land of stream of consciousness Texas babble. If you like the novels CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES and BARK OF THE DOGWOOD, then VGL will set perfectly with you. I know it did with me.

Even without magic or robots..
This book is constantly clever and constantly funny. The kind of read that's more like a conversation than a lecture; it doesn't overstate points and if you're willing, it lets you think far and wide without straying from the story.

In a couple of places some of the descriptions strike as perhaps a little too constructed, but the joy of reading the rest makes that up as far as I'm concerned.

The writing is fast and fierce, but whereas some novels with a similar writing style are driven by that alone, there's also an honestly engaging, nerve-twisting plot, and some well constructed mystery. My favourite thing (maybe) is that Vernon is so honest - he tells you exactly what he finds wrong with (for example) his mother. But then he talks about how that is ok really, and his affection for her, and how he understands why she acts as she does.. And then, he re-states her faults as soon as she annoys or hurts him again. It's like being inside your own head.

I highly advise anybody to read this. Even if you usually like a little fantasy in your fiction.

A slow starter
I had no idea what to expect with this book and was a bit baffled at the start as to why it was so hyped. The story jogged along ok but I felt little sympathy for the main character. The review on the back of my copy said there was a joke on every page but I failed to see anything funny in the first 3/4 of the book. Things did pick up towards the end and some really interesting points were made about reality TV and our obsession with celebrity - if only the rest of the book could have been as thought-provoking and insightful