Product Description

A novel with 26 chapters from A to Z. A road trip with a difference: an acid factory in South London, six students fleeing towards Hay-on-Wye in an ambulance, and a group of kamikaze pilots out to avenge the atomic bomb.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #619133 in Books
• Published on: 2002-06-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Synopsis
A novel with 26 chapters from A to Z. A road trip with a difference: an acid factory in South London, six students fleeing towards Hay-on-Wye in an ambulance, and a group of kamikaze pilots out to avenge the atomic bomb.

About the Author
Tom Bullough is 25 and an English graduate of London University, now living on the Welsh Borders. This is his first novel.

Customer Reviews

A is for Acid (Duh!)
This debut novel starts slow as molasses and chock full of cliché, picks up about a third of the way in, and ends up delivering a reasonably entertaining and somewhat sweet story about a loose group of young London slackers. The crew of drugged-out housemates is straight from central casting: the volatile foreign Lothario, the slumming hot rich girl, the total space cadet, the essentially decent smart guy, the essentially decent creative guy, and the enigmatic mousy girl who blossoms. These characters may live "alternative" lifestyles, but they've been seen in a thousand films and books. The plot is similarly familiar: when the two guys who are making acid in the attic realize the police are moments away from raiding the house, they grab everyone and head for the wilderness. Of course the police aren't the only people after them, there's also the drug thugs they've got the deal set up with... Leaving behind their joint smoke contaminated London house, the urbanites make for the magic mushroom hills of Wales, where fish out of water antics ensue. There, they meet up with a former housemate, who's shut himself up in an ancient cottage, trying to write a story about kamikaze pilots. It engages on a very superficial level, and is worth considering if you want a very light read that's rooted in pill-popping youth culture.

A high speed trip
A nostalgic look at friendship coupled with a high-speed thrash through more drugs than you'd care to have fall on your head, all mixed together with a look into the head of a young kamikaze pilot out to restart the second world war. The book bears comparison to the wonderful messed-up ness of Viktor Pelevin or a more thoughtful, intelligent, better written and madder version of Alex Garland's The Beach.
For those who want a squint into youth culture in Britain you could do a lot worse, for those who already know about youth culture in Britain, it's a damn good read.
Buy buy buy...