Vernon God Little: a 21st century comedy in the presence of death

Product Information

In 2004, the Citizens Theatre, Glasgow, performed the international premiere stage adaptation by Andrea Hart, directed by Kenny Miller, with Pete Ashmore in the title role. [ citation needed] DBC Pierre talks to The Timesabout a life in writing and seeing his Man Booker Prize-winning novel come to stage. (Log in required) Anyone who believes in true love or is simply willing to accept it as the premise of a winding tale will find this debut an emotional, satisfying read. The 42-year-old writer is the third Australian to win the prize - now in its 35th year - following in the footsteps of Peter Carey and Thomas Keneally. The massacre is just another thing to deal with, and the everyday routines aren't really upset by it.

Vernon God Little, By DBC Pierre By DBC Nick Hern Books | Vernon God Little, By DBC Pierre By DBC

It's comparison to "Confederacy of Dunces" may be inescapable. Both deal with plenty of the following after all: poor suffering mamas and the boys who devastate their love for them; a protagonist's distrust of society at large; a constant mention of fate or other celestial devices (Fortuna's Wheel for Toole, "God" in the title by Pierre); digestive maladies...bile and acid in interplay; the hero being utterly, pathetically, heartbreakingly misunderstood while the law and its enforcement become ludicrous. If you see lots of movies, you know this is the way people speak in real life. And Vernon has seen many, many movies. Come to think of it, his constant allusions to cinema and television sound far more like those of a 42-year-old author than a 15-year-old pothead, but who gives a ****? It's the same annoying inconsistency that has Vernon usually saying things like, "There ain't puke enough in the world for today," while sometimes observing, "We play into an anesthetic sleep, just conscious of life collapsing around us in grainy pieces." Cool. Fiction, particularly sharp-eyed satire, can puncture the membrane of self-satisfaction that keeps us from seeing our own flaws and pathologies, but the Booker judges have erred if they hoped to convey that message. As Vern observes, "Where TV lets you down, I'm discovering, is by not convincing you how things really work in the world." The same might be said for some award-winning novels. The show's second half can't match the manic exuberance of the first. And inevitably one loses something of Pierre's racy prose in which a shrink's receptionist is described as having "a voicebox made from bees trapped in tracing paper." But what one gets is a helter-skelter portrait of a crazy world in which justice turns into a form of showbusiness and in which even a savage shooting is something to be marketed. And, although the play offers the humanist message that what matters is how you treat the living, sentimentality is kept at bay by the reminder that Vernon's mum is more concerned with the arrival of her new fridge than her son's possible execution. Also nominated were Margaret Atwood, who won in 2000, plus Damon Galgut, Zoe Heller, Clare Morrall, and bookies' favourite Monica Ali.Vernon Little is fifteen years old and lives with his mother in Martirio, a flea-bitten Texan town. His best friend just massacred sixteen of their classmates before killing himself. The town wants vengeance and turns its sights on Vernon, who is arrested at the start of the story. No one that I know of. If it’s a fantasy question, then František Kupka, who painted The Yellow Scale.

Vernon God Little (Pierre) - LitLovers Vernon God Little (Pierre) - LitLovers

Along the way there's a quirky cast of characters, from a deviant psychiatrist to a whole lot of Guries (as all the law enforcement officials in town seem to belong to the same extended family) to a few girls who take differing sorts of interest in the accused killer. It is the third book this year where shit, figurtive human excreta, has been given so much attention. No wonder I don't enjoy reading books as much anymore. The other two books are The Discomfort of Evening (another booker winner; booker committe seems to love shit) and the book that probably introduced shit to literature - Gargantua and Pantagruel (still reading) I shuffle up the hall to my pre-stained chair. 'Mister Little,' says Gurie, 'I'm going to start over - that means loosen up some facts, young man. Sheriff Porkorney has firm notions about Tuesday, you should be thankful you only have to talk to me.' She goes to touch her snatch, but diverts to her gun at the last second. Pierre's carefully balanced satirical tone teases the reader through the novel's seeming implausibility. Some of the characters are riotously funny. (...) Like many first-person narratives, Vernon God Little occasionally jars. There is a little too much repetition of the restrictive vocabulary of a cursing Texan teenager, while at other times the voice seems overly poetic. This aside, Vernon is a marvellous creation. His vibrant commentary on his family and, more widely, America is often ill-informed but always amusingly thought-provoking." - Andrew Laing, Sydney Morning HeraldVernon God Little (2003) is a novel by DBC Pierre. It was his debut novel and won the Man Booker Prize in 2003. It has twice been adapted as a stage play.

Vernon God Little - Wikipedia

Eulalio ("Lally") Ledesma, supposedly a CNN reporter, ingratiates himself to Doris, Vernon's Mom, and promises to help Vernon "shift the paradigm" of his story. Instead, Lally betrays Vernon, who is returned to jail pending a psychiatric analysis. Vernon God Little is a provocatively satirical, riotously funny look at violence, materialism, and the American media. ( From the publisher.)this novel won the booker prize in 2003, and a lot of people seem to think the british committee that hands out the prizes was giving a big middle finger to america with this one. it's not exactly the most flattering portrait of american society. the novel starts after a high school shooting, and the main character (vernon) is suspected of having a hand in it, though innocent. every character in the book seems to be out to get him -- every stereotyped, easy to hate, uneducated and dumb texan character. there was so much unfairness directed at vernon that i had to start reading sometime other than right before bed because i got so riled up i was having trouble sleeping. also, the last couple sections of the book kind of went off in a weird 1984/big brother/"the american media is out of control" kind of direction that i was not expecting and found heavy-handed.