DBC Pierre Vernon God Little

Annotation

Fifteen-year-old Vernon Gregory Little is in trouble, and it has something to do with the recent massacre of 16 students at his high school. Soon, the quirky backwater of Martirio, barbecue capital of Texas, is flooded with wannabe CNN hacks, eager for a scapegoat. Winner of the 2003 Booker Prize.

Review

Whether or not you think the United States is being Texanized, you should take a closer look at this cowboy’s paradise. In the startling and excellent debut novel of DBC Pierre, Vernon God Little,"a 21st-century comedy in the presence of death", you are invited into the true darkness of the Lone Star state. In the small and filthy town of Martirio, "the barbecue capital of Texas", where poverty and greed ensure that life ain't ever gonna be fair, our hero - sixteen year old Vernon - is suspected of being an accessory to a devastating mass murder: the gunning down of 16 of his high-school classmates. His best friend, Jesus Navarro, a Mexican boy, was the one holding the gun. Vernon is a brilliant comic creation: hapless, luckless, cynical, even tragic. Through his rudeness and quick judgments shine the purity and elementary goodness of a Holden Calfeild. (It is no accident that Sunday Telegraph reviewed the book "Fit to rank with Catcher in the Rye".) When the Bar-B-Chew Barn sets up a local Swat team to hunt him down, all his mother can do is eat Barn's Chik'n'Mix and pray for a side-by-side fridge (special edition, almond shade). So he decides to flee to Mexico, dreaming of a bungalow on the beach, just like in the movies. But nothing works well for little Little, he’s betrayed, tried and sentenced to death. The ending of Vernon God Little is too good to reveal. Find out yourself.