A marvelous story told in (almost) classic British comic style by Hugh Laurie, who played Bertie Wooster in the “Jeeves and Wooster” TV series. A review I read before reading the book spoke of this as a mix of P. G. Wodehouse and Fredrick Forsyth and I didn’t believe it. I won’t say I buy into that description, but I understand what they meant.
The book tells the tale of retired British military serviceman Thomas Lang, who accidentally gets involved with a dangerous crowd involving British politicians, Middle Eastern terrorists and the American military-industrial complex. The plot is actually not too bad, and certainly hangs together; even if there are a few somewhat incredible parts to it. I won’t give it the highest praise for suspense and thrill, but that is more than made up for by the way the yarn is spun — in the first person of T. Lang. The language is dry, self-deprecating, dripping with sarcasm, and outright funny. I’d forgotten how rarely one reads books that have laugh-out-loud moments. Certainly not to be missed.
3 Comments
Dude, his more popular roles are House and Blackadder.
True enough :) but I’ve never seen Black Adder and his role in House is totally different from the style of the book.
So I finally finished reading it last month. Have to say, really funny in that dry, sarcastic way.
In the initial chapters, I thought he was trying too hard to get the jokes into every other line. But that went away as the book progressed with a good mix of humour & chase seeing the book through.
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