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

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The United Kingdom's international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities. What does Vernon God Little say about America? Is it effective as a commentary on our culture? How do humor and satire work in the novel to provide a new perspective on school violence? DBC PIERRE’S SUPERBLY DARK, RIOTOUSLY FUNNY, FAST-TALKING ADVENTURE HITS THE STAGE RUNNING ONCE AGAIN!

Vernon God Little | Young Vic website Vernon God Little | Young Vic website

This work touches on the themes of nationality and independence as well as operating as a political satire and love story. Because of these various agendas, the novel risks trying to do too many things at once and consequently looks ineffective when some of the points are left in mid-air. It is welcome that certain ones are not over-indulged, such as the Tony Blair and Gordon Brown double act depicted figuratively as twins not separated at birth. This is limited to the ongoing joke of their names and to the reasoning that their strength is brought about by their enforced unity: ‘While Blair possessed the twins’ physical power – forza – their cunning resided in Gordon, making him dominant in most situations, despite being the weaker twin’. However, there are also parts of the novel that could have been either omitted or given more space than a superficial treatment, such as the disintegration of the former Soviet Union and the privatisation of the National Health Service.Vernon God Little is the debut novel by Australian-born author DBC Pierre, first published in 2003. A darkly comic novel, it focuses on the title teenager, Vernon Little, who lives in a small town in Texas in the aftermath of a horrible school shooting where Vernon’s best friend killed sixteen students followed by himself. Although Vernon was not involved in the shooting and had no knowledge of his friend’s plans, the townspeople are consumed with a desire for answers and vengeance, and their cruel scrutiny soon falls on Vernon as they seek to make him a scapegoat. Exploring themes of popular culture, fame, martyrdom, and the various ways people respond to tragedy, Vernon God Little was highly acclaimed for its unique take on heavy themes, and won multiple awards. These included the Man Booker Prize for Fiction, the Bollinger Wodehouse Everyman Prize for Comic Fiction, and the First Novel Award in the Whitbread Awards. It has been adapted twice into a stage play, with the second adaptation being nominated for the Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Play. It is under development as a feature film by German director Werner Herzog. How does Vernon's colloquial narrative voice help to develop him as a character? Does it ring true to you as the everyday speech of a young Texan? Do you "hear" Vernon speaking as you read? Is his voice different from the way characters in the book speak to one another? How does it change over the course of the novel? Is the kind of cruelty shown by Jesus”s classmates on the day of the shooting simply a fact of adolescent life, or is it a symptom of an unhealthy society? Do teenagers have a right to be free from teasing and harassment, or are they, as Charlotte Brewster suggests, naturally subject to the tyranny of the majority of their peers? Can the social persecution of Jesus be compared to the persecution of Vernon by media-influenced public opinion?

BBC World Service - World Book Club, DBC Pierre - Vernon God BBC World Service - World Book Club, DBC Pierre - Vernon God

The book is written in contemporary vernacular, with the use of satirical invective and witty irony. The town in which Vernon lives, Martirio, is given the Spanish word for martyrdom. The closest I can get is to say it's like 'Catcher In The Rye' if it had been written by Warren Ellis. Tomorrow is the constant answer. But prior to that, in 1996 when I lived on an island with emerald green fireflies. Central, also, is the wannabe TV journalist Eulalio 'Lally' Ledesma, who parlays the events in Martirio into a full-blown career (and he's not the only one), twisting every bit of information to further his career -- at Vernon's expense. Out for revenge are the townspeople, the cable news networks, and Deputy Vaine Curie, a woman whose zeal for the Pritikin die is eclipsed only by her appetite for barbecued ribs from the Bar-B-Chew Barn. So Vernon does what any red-blooded American teenager would do; he takes off for Mexico.Vernon's confused adolescent lust and his girl trouble, with Ella and Taylor Figueroa, is for the most part also well handled. If you are not got acquainted with American slank, you will feel a little bit annoyed by the excessive use of American teenagers lingo. Obviously, this is a novel that can be included in the Guinnes Book of Records as the novel with most f-word (in all of its forms). I had estimated that at least there would be some 800 f-words in this novel (of course I am using sampling techniques). But, amazingly, seemed that Mr. Dirty But Clean Pierre could read his reader's mind. Unexpectedly, the f-word vanished in the last one-third part of the novel (so I wrong, because I assumed that the population of f-word in this novel is homogenous). I won't tell you why this drastic change happened. You should read it by yourself. It's just amazing, how a little, unimportant thing of using or not using f-word can give impact on the interpretation (yeah, at least for me) of the whole story. I'm a kid whose best friend took a gun into his mouth and blew off his hair, whose classmates are dead, who's being blamed for it all, who broke his mama's heart

The Man Booker Prize 2003 | The Booker Prizes The Man Booker Prize 2003 | The Booker Prizes

Urban western Europe in 1735, a peak of civilisation and manners (granted: as an affluent white male). Poor Vernon is in deep trouble, all right. He's being held as an accessory to mass murder, but his gossipy mother is more concerned about impressing the neighbors with a new side-by-side refrigerator. A Freudian nightmare, she alternately weeps and nags. As he's led away by the sheriff, she calls after him, "Vernon, I love you! Forget about before - even murderers are loved by their families, you know...."It is indeed satire, but of the broadest and bluntest kind, the kind deployed by the teenager in the schoolyard who thinks it's clever to say the f-word. Vernon Little owes a debt to Salinger's Holden Caulfield, and like Holden his voice is loud and clear -the book's greatest strength. But, like Michael Moore (who, Camille Paglia has said, gives liberalism a bad name), his targets are too soft, his weapons too coarse." - Erica Wagner, The Times