Page turner: 4/10
Heart tugger: 3/10
Thought provoker: 6/10
Overall: 2 stars

I got frustrated and read the last chapter of Vernon God Little when I was about half way through the book.

I got a serious telling off at work: ‘…who *does* that!?’

But I just couldn’t help it! What at first seems edgy and full of well-deployed vernacular just gets tedious. Everything everything is ‘fucken’ this and ‘fucken that’ and ‘up your asshole’ ‘shit shit shit’. Vernon, the teenage boy whose story you read, also has something of a bum/butt/ass/anal obsession going on. The book is a satire on the worst parts of American culture; so anything ‘obsessive’ is understandable in the characters, but I have my limits of understanding. So, I wanted to know if the story was really going to go anywhere, or if it would be an annoying, whiny, book. The good news was that I actually liked the ending. It’s sharp.

Having read the pretty good ending, I read the few chapters before that. They were alright. Shed a lot of light on the plot and in so doing, also were a lot more fluid that the jilted curse-word-narrated style of the rest of the book. As it happens, the book is about a high-school shooting in Texas. The teenage Vernon is the childhood friend of the murder (indelicately named Jesus), and is heavily implicated as a second shooter in the massacre. The book features homophobia, xenophobia, obesity, reality TV, gun ownership, and the death penalty for minors. And it is set in Texas. And of course his mother is a weirdo.

In the end, I did read the book. Just a bit see-saw like. At the end of it I do respect Pierre for ‘going for the jugular’ and for managing to tell a story with such harsh language. But I really just felt it lacked finesse, which to me, is what a satire should really be able to say is its forte. The story is simultaneously out-there and predictable; to the point where it became nearly impossible to empathize. And, given the subject matter, for all of the occasionally humorous quips – it wasn’t fun.

I can see potential in a daring author, but I’m not sure the execution (pardon the pun – but I can’t resist) worked this time.