Tom Sharpe was first introduced to me by a boss at my former company, who knew my well-documented love of Wodehouse, and said that this was a contemporary version. Big shoes, that. He'd handed me the interestingly named Blott on the Landscape. The first few chapters had me rolling, it was indeed quite Wodehousean, in fact, it was almost like Sharpe was trying a little too hard. Face it, Tom... A lot of people can put together big words, but noone can do it like Plum can. Still, I granted him the read because it was quite entertaining and Tom had a more sarcastic style. Unfortunately, that book got drenched and destroyed, so to replace it for my boss, I bought another interesting looking 'Wilt In Nowhere'.
And I was a little disappointed, I must say.
The sarcasm of the previous book was just not there, neither was the punch. The storyline by itself is quite interesting. Henry Wilt, an English college teacher, is nagged on by his rather voluminous wife to visit rich relatives in the USA in an attempt to suck up to them and fund their quadruplets' (you heard me right) further education. Henry detested the very thought of visiting the old hags and cooked up an excuse that he had to teach a course at college during that period. And off he goes exploring the English countryside. The word 'desultory' comes to mind, since he had no plan, he just wanted to go off exploring.
And then things get murky, as he gets inebriated and lands up at the site of an arson attack. In the meantime, on the flight to the US, a drug dealer tries to hide his batch in the quadruplets' luggage and the police trace the Wilts down, and become cognizant of some of the 'merrier' happenings of the rich uncle. This screw-up, compounded with Wilt's unfortunate presence at the earlier mentioned pyrotechnics, result in what should have been a hilarious mash-up of events. But somehow the laughs don't come as easily, though the book isn't sluggish in any way.
Mind you, there are good moments. Hilarious, even. The quads (as they're called) are a constant source of merriment, and the moment they talk back to the Reverend is probably the funniest moment of the book. Another scene features the quads sending obscene emails to all of the uncle's business associates and destroying his business (a little hyperbolic, but, what the heck).
Other parts like Wilt acting like he had amnesia were not too convincing, and felt more like a badly made Bollywood film than an English comic novel.
All in all, it's imminently readable. Sharpe is supposed to one of those satirists who pokes fun at current English society and that comes through nicely. Pick it up if you see it at the library or a friend's, and can finish 280 pages in 2 days, and want some light-hearted reading between all the Engineering handbooks and Noam Chomskys you generally read.
Had this been the first Sharpe I picked up, I probably wouldn't be tempted to pick up another. But having read the first few chapters of Blott on the Landscape, I know he's capable of better stuff, and will probably try some out again in the future.
