The Midden

Tom Sharpe has done it again. My life was once again suspended whilst I wallowed in the gossip fodder of his characters. He has the knack of introducing characters with no palpable attributes and telling you about their plights with no clue about whether this means they are about to get their just desserts or continue to outwit karma. Maybe it's just me. But I swear I have met most of his characters or their soul mates. And his rendition of their thought processes only seems to confirm the fact. It's a fun read with wonderful characters spilling onto the pages. I believe the modern world would call it dark comedy. When I die, they'll find a complete library of Tom Sharpe in my bookcase. I recommend you give this book a try.

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Title: The Midden
Series: -----
Author: Tom Sharpe
Rating: 1 of 5 Stars
Genre: Satire
Pages: 352
Format: Kindle Digital edition



Synopsis:

A rich, spoiled boy gets involved with drug runners who want him to frame his uncle, who is a judge. Spoiled boy runs off, gets drugged, and somehow gets involved in small town politics.

A corrupt police chief, a woman who doesn't want the burden of taking care of her ancestral home and a various cast of show more inept and bumbling idiots all come together for a finale of death, fire and explosions. Not to mention a Black Mass where hordes of children are to be sacrificed.



My Thoughts:

On the surface, this should have been as funny as Riotous Assembly. However, while it was just as biting and satirical, it came across as bitter and angry without the humor. In fact, this left me in a completely foul mood for about 24hrs.

When a book affects me like that, I drop the author like a hot potato. show less

The usual Tom Sharpe. This one was written after a long dry spell (he doesn't seem to have written much throughout the 80s and 90s).

I thought he did a better job than usual for the first two thirds or so. We have the usual sorts of characters and events, but with just a little more finesse. However the ending was disappointing; once again as always we have houses exploding and massive police destruction. Sharpe really needs to work on alternative ways to wrap things up.

Fairly typical. Set in the time of Margaret Thatcher. Idiot banker; stupid police; wily woman who saves the day. Lots of cops get shot and old people burn up. I dock it a point or two for that.

Typical Tom Sharpe. Laugh out loud funny.

Timothy Brights doesn't exactly live up to his name. Brought up to regard copious flows of money as his birthright, he can't understand why the funds have been cut off, nor why friends he recruited as Lloyds' Names no longer want to talk to him. When gambling fails, Timothy turns to embezzlement, but it's the lesser offence of helping himself to some strangely aromatic tobacco that propels him up the motorway and into bed with the Chief Constable's wife. The Chief Constable has just survived charges of bribery and perjury and is not too concerned that his efforts to dispose of Timothy involve false imprisonment, breaking and entering, and a spot of GBH. It is only when the Chief tries to frame his old adversary, the upright Miss Midden, show more hat things begin to go seriously wrong as his underhand ploy opens up the way to spectacular mayhem. show less

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