Jesse Armstrong (1)

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What The Wire did for the relationship between politics, poverty and crime, Succession does for politics, media and class: it exposes the workings of a failing system, and as such it is indeed about “the blood of billions”. And just as in The Wire, it does so by tracking a few tragic characters that cannot help themselves.

It’s a very timely show, written in and around our new knowledge ecosystem: "the cacophony of media voices spilling out from TVs, laptops, smartphones, radios."

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For a fan like me, the book proved to be a treasure trove that not only enhanced my understanding of the show’s creative process, but also of the psychology of certain characters. For me the greatest worth lay in some of the character directions, that, however small sometimes, gave crucial, new information not available to those that only watched the show.

(...)

Full review on Weighing A Pig Doesn't Fatten It… (meer)

The first time I heard of this book, it was from the First to Read program. However, it only gave me a month to finish it and I could not finish it for many reasons. I was expecting something humorous since the name of the title seem so. I hate to give up on ARC books that I promise to read and review; that was why I had to request an audio copy when I saw it being offer again on Audio Jukebox.

The narrator, Chris Addison, seemed to help with my situation. I could finally finish the book within a reasonable time-frame. Since the book is written by a British celebrity, the narration does have British accent. The pace was relaxing. He did not add much emotion but the book itself is boring. I was hoping Jesse Armstrong would have narrated his own book since he is somewhat known and authors reading their own books are usually better.

As for the story, I wish I have something nice to say. The group had no idea what they were doing or what was going on in the world. They just wanted to go in the war zone to spread peace. They had no idea how to get, how to spread the words, or anything at all. Most of the men just wanted to sleep with the women in the group and lied about everything. Even after the trip, they had not learned anything.

2 out of 5 stars
Received a free e-copy from First to Read and audio copy from Audio Jukebox in exchange for an honest review.… (meer)

In this first novel by Peep Show writer Jesse Armstrong, a group of activists decide to take a play to the former Yugoslavia at the height of the war. Their motives are varied and ambiguous (a certain amount of sexual longing, intellectual arrogance and ambition are in the mix) but overall they are motivated by a kind of benevolent woolliness.

Andrew, the narrator, joins them, having refined his foreign policy while skiving at his job in a supermarket warehouse. He is insightful but a bit passive and manipulative, particularly in his infatuation with the writer of the play, Penny. Inevitably, travelling through a war zone turns out to be less straightforward than Andrew or the group had envisaged.

I liked the premise of this novel. I felt nostalgic for the days when people like Andrew did crap jobs as a lifestyle choice, rather than because that’s all there is. The world of the group is immediately recognisable to anyone who’s ever been involved in direct action. But that is part of the problem with this book. There are some nice observations, the pages turn easily, and I did laugh out loud a few times, but I felt that nothing surprised me, in either the characters or the plot.

I wonder if this book is something Armstrong had in a drawer and dusted off for publication. It doesn’t feel as technically accomplished as his TV work. It has a dogged ‘and then’ narration rather than a strong story arc. Its great strength is that reading it does feel exactly like going on a very long minibus journey with a gang of friends, with all the pleasures and pitfalls that entails. Sometimes they’re fun, sometimes they’re annoying, sometimes you wonder if you should have bothered.

I think Armstrong has shied away from engaging with the full horrors of the war. There are some dark moments, but I did feel that the characters, the reader and the author all got off too lightly.

This is surprising because the programmes he’s written – from Peep Show to The Thick of It to Babylon – are all ruthless in their depiction of people’s failings. It’s hard to find anyone likeable in any of them. And they’re also not afraid to push their characters to the limit just to see how they react.

Like Andrew, this book seemed a little timid and a little too keen to be liked.
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I received an ARC from the publisher via Netgalley.… (meer)