Finished We 11/21/12
New York Times Book Review-
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/19/books/review/lionel-asbo-by-martin-amis.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
My post on Good Reads-
The book is wry and very perverse, and I don't think that it can appeal to everyone. It's the kind of novel that either you 'love it' or 'hate it'.
Lionel Asbo is a career criminal who works on ' the hairiest end of debt collection' (in between lengthy stays in prison) , but he doesn't really have a conscience, but more of an extreme sense of 'the way things should be'. The book is a madcap chronicle of his escapades, and his relationship with his young orphaned nephew, Desmond Pepperdine. The plot thickens when Lionel wins the lottery, and all of his problems should end, yet he becomes a tabloid superstar, and the massive inflow of cash only escalates his anti-social behavior. Yet, old ways die hard, and he still yearns for the solidity of prison where 'at least you know where you are'.
The novel is a wild and crazy satire where life is not very long, and extremely brutal. It's not exactly a 'post moral world', since the characters haven't evolved to that point, and frolic in a kind of a cracked and modern 'Dickensian Universe'. But, I guess that Desmond begins to see a glimmer of hope, and this is what makes the novel work. The reader watches as Desmond reacts to Lionel's sinister shenanigans and finds a new life with his wife, Dawn, and daughter, Cilla.
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