The Wilt Alternative

Wilt blunders through a succession of disasters before ending up caught in a terrorist siege, which he navigates through a mixture of confusion, luck and sheer persistence. Sharpe keeps the farce at full throttle throughout. The siege section remains funny largely because Wilt’s quadruplets seem determined to create as much havoc as the siege itself. One practical takeaway: never pee in a rosebush!

In this, the second of Tom Sharpe's chronicles about Henry Wilt, our hero is no longer the victim of his own uncontrolled fantasies. As Head of a reconstituted Liberal Studies Department he has assumed power without authority at the Fenland College of Arts & Technology and the fantasies he now confronts are those of political bigots and reactionary bureaucrats- in addition to his wife's enthusiasm for every Organic Alternative under the compost heap and the insistence of his quadruplets on looking at every problem with an unflinching lack of sentimentality. Wilt's problems are compounded by nature in the shape of a rose bush, nostalgia, temporary infatuation with a foreign student and the hostility of medical services unwilling to show more attend to his most urgent needs. But it is only when Wilt becomes the unintentional participant in a terrorist siege that he is forced to find an answer to the problems of power, which have corrupted greater men than he. With a mental ingenuity born of his innate cowardice, Wilt fights for those liberal values which are threatened both by international terrorism and by the sophisticated methods of police anti- terrorist agents. In the confusion that follows, Wilt resumes his dialogue with the unflagging Inspector Flint and is himself subjected to the indignity of a psycho- political profile. Bitingly funny and brilliantly written, THE WILT ALTERNATIVE exposes the farcical anomalies, which have become the social norms of our time. show less

The dad of four diabolical children, teacher now promoted head of his department, and, so, having moved into a posh neighbourhood, you'll be excused to think Wilt's life took a semblance of normalcy. That would be counting without, first, his imposing wife who put it into her head to rent one of their room to a German student, and, two, the remarkable ability of the couple to turn seemingly banal events into extraordinary catastrophes!

Chaotic and hilarious, full of crazy jokes just going crescendo, Tom Sharpe takes us here into a mad adventure where sanity is everything but granted. It is, in any case, way way better than the first opus!

What can one say? It is vulgar, over the top, not believable, frenetically paced riot. My first Wilt. At times reminded me of Confederacy of Dunces with it's crazed set pieces, but that one does build up to scenes and this one just sort of smashes you into them over and over. Great.

Un poil en deçà du premier, mais toujours délirant

Tom Sharpe, funny as usual, but this time a little disappointing.
For some reason this one just didn't grab me quite as much as everything else of his that I've read.

En Wilt, el protagonista se debatía con sus obsesiones sexuales, libraba una batalla personal con Flint —el implacable inspector de policía— y, sobre todo, con la impetuosa Eva: su esposa. Ahora la vida de Wilt ha cambiado. El matrimonio y sus cuatrillizas se han mudado a una gran casa del barrio elegante y distinguido y Wilt es jefe del Departamento de Artes Liberales del Politécnico. Tiene la sensación de que ha madurado y su entrega al trabajo, mas serena aceptación de una vida cotidiana hecha de rutinas, sustenta un apacible estar en el mundo. Sólo las excentricidades de Eva —consagrada a numerosos proyectos de vida alternativa: dietas, medicina, biología, religiones, etc.—, que aún conserva sus poderosos impulsos show more vitales, inquietan a un Wilt concentrado en sí mismo. El gran placer de Wilt es fabricar su propia cerveza. En ese contexto de aceptación, las cosas se enredan cuando Eva decide alquilar el desván a una bella y extraña joven alemana que despierta el fantasioso interés de Wilt. Pero la situación se complica todavía más cuando se descubre que la joven y guapa alemana es en realidad una terrorista internacional que, junto a dos compañeros suyos, prepara un atentado en Inglaterra. La acción de la policía, que cerca la casa de Wilt, la reaparición en la vida de éste del inspector Flint, y la presencia de una anciana vecina, sorda y viuda de un militar ingles, son los últimos ingredientes para completar las “tribulaciones” del “pobre” Henry Wilt. show less