Lionel Asbo: State of England

Amis can write the darkest satire with a lyrical heart that beats with warm, soft blood. 'Lionel ASBO' is sad, funny, gratuitous, sick and full of life. It is like Dickens was written by William Burroughs.

Covered in grit, the characters in this Amis novel seem at first like bizarre 21st century, Cruikshank caricatures that just keep bouncing back and forth in my head between the real, the surreal and the unreal -- so I keep on doubting my own palsied view of the world.

Anywho, this novel seems like a better-adjusted, less disquieting version of Amis' magnum opus 'Money'. Lionel ASBO has more heart, and just slightly less art. Amis traded a little of the floating world . . . for the heavy. Just please Jēz...us don't buy it for Grans.

A distillation of real English people who you would not want to meet.

Who let the dogs in. And we will never know.

The first family meeting at the country manor, Wormwood Scrubs.

Definitely NOT Lionel Asbo

One of the most well written books I have enjoyed. The prose alone is worth the listen - and the story is superb. But if you are an American anglophile you might want to stay away. As a Brit in the US, the 'orrible English characters resonate - albeit disturbingly!

Pretty high up. Great British reader. I couldn't get into the book, but knew that the audio would be good.

Lionel - I can still hear his voice in my head many months later.

Lottery Lout. Asbo is so perfect = Anti-social behaviour order. This guy just didn't get it.

I usually listen to audio books when they have different accents.

Anti-social Behavior Ordinance

It was about a kid who was raised by his uncle. His uncle was in and out of jail so many times he changed his name to asbo (anti-social behavior ordinance). Just to give you backround on how he might have been raised. When he was 15 he had an affair with his grandmother ( who I think was a prostitute). He wrote the local advise columnist and ask was it wrong. Then when the affair was over Desmond noted,"I did catch the ironical nature of the fact that at 15 I had been dumped for a younger man"

So I am not sure if I read this to myself I would have understood or I might have read a whole different book. The way he brought out the naivete of all the characters made it funny. So instead of being a story about a bunch of juvenile deliquents with a cracked out mother ( or grandmother), it was about people with a different moral compass trying to live. Also the narrator got the nuances when the character was trying to be something they are not.

I think Martin Amis already got it. State of England. Could be America too.

I know i laughed a lot through the book. I am not sure, however, if it was so funny because it was sad or it was sad that it was so funny.

The story is unusual, and descriptions of life in small English town are quite funny. Antics of the title character, well read by performer, greatly amused me..

Fifteen year old Des realizing that his title character guardian might have discovered his liaison with youngish grandmother.

NA

Des, as his struggle to understand relationships resonates with personal experience.