What a strange book! I enjoyed it very much and I only meant the most positive version of "strange" but still, strange... ( )

While his biggest influence, vonagate, is there, this is where ferguson falls short. He tries and does well in other areas, writing, plot and character development, the fact that he tries to be like a legend and fails terribly. ( )

Another book by a comedian best known for his acting. Back in June I read The Gun Seller by Hugh Laurie, best known for his television work in the UK classics Blackadder and A Bit of Laurie and Fry, and his starring role in the US TV show House. This time around it's Craig Ferguson, the host of the American late-night talk show The Late Late Show. I thoroughly enjoyed Ferguson's memoir, American on Purpose, and was looking forward to seeing what his cat-quick humorous mind could do with a purely fictional setting.

If I spent a thousand days writing, I don't think I could possibly do justice to a plot summary in this review, considering the book deals with a sexually perverted Scottish televangelist, illegitimate half brothers from the American South who run rampant through Hollywood, a rather meek Scottish man who throws caution to the wind when he believes he has terminal cancer, and a whole panoply of supporting characters with their own quirks and foibles.

At times I found this book a little over the top and ridiculous, but I can't deny that it made me laugh heartily more than once. In the end, Ferguson uses the farce to put forth a simple message: Love one another.

This is a strange one - the story is bizarre, the characters are strange, the coincidences and impossibilities are impossible (but then bumblebees can fly). And then there are these nuggets of fun that make this book worth reading. It is a bit on the crude side, in case that is not your cup of tea. ( )

Best for: Others seem to like this, and I don’t want to insult them or their taste, so I’ll just say — I’m not sure who it’s best for, but it sure as shit isn’t me.

In a nutshell: The lives of loathsome men and superfluous women intertwine in a weak, ridiculous, and boring novel.

Worth quoting:
Nothing. Nothing is worth quoting, unless it’s in an effort to point out how sexist and / or racist Mr. Ferguson’s writing comes across to me.

Why I chose it:
You all. You did this to me. I was not going to participate in the November book club, but I’m attempting to do a blackout BINGO, so I had to read it. I’m not pleased. I’ve not disliked fiction this much since those free Cinderella revisited books we got to review a few years ago.

Review:
No wonder I had trouble finding this book in Mr. Ferguson’s home country. They’re realy doing him a favor by pretending this book doesn’t exist. I ended up buying it via Audible, and listened to it on long runs so I could experience it in chunks. I took some notes on my phone as I ran, hoping that perhaps I’d be able to write that it started slow but ultimately won me over.

Nopety nope nope.

The plot itself is, I suppose, interesting. Maybe? I don’t know. I rarely read fiction, and I think the last fiction I chose with a male main character was The Martian three years ago, which I enjoyed. Generally speaking, though, I got enough exploration of the male experience in high school English. And this book certainly didn’t make me any more interested in seeking out male protagonists or anti-heroes.

There are few women in this book, and they all exist to serve the men. Even the most fully-formed woman, Claudette, is basically just there to help George figure some shit out. It’s frustrating and sexist. Mr. Ferguson is not good at writing women, and that is pissing me off again as I write this review, so I’ll just leave it there.

I also struggle with authors who make their characters so repugnant that they use slurs and are all universally bigots. Can it really be considered a thoughtful character choice when all of your characters are shitty bigots? I started to wonder if Mr. Ferguson just wanted an excuse to use racial slurs / crappy accents / racist descriptions of people. That seems unfair to Mr. Ferguson, but also, perhaps it’s something he should think about?

Finally, the thing that I think bothered me the most is that the simple act of “being fat” is apparently the most awful, disgusting, and evil thing Mr. Ferguson can think of. Saul is fat, other people are fat, and Saul is described as disgusting. This ventures over to ableist near the end, when Saul seeks healing (he’s now also in a wheelchair), and is told he can’t be healed because “that’s who he is.” Now, perhaps Mr. Ferguson meant something else, but I heard it as suggesting that if you’re fat and in a wheelchair, you’re a bad person. And I’m super not okay with that. I’m not okay with any of this lazy writing, but this got me so pissed I almost gave up on the book, but I only had a little bit left.

I’m flummoxed that this is the book that the CBR folks thought we all should read and discuss this fall. There are a bunch of different little side stories that theoretically could be considered interesting, but overall I was super bored, and when I wasn’t bored, I was pissed. Clearly I’m not the target audience, but I am having such a hard time figuring out what is appealing about it. ( )