Krishna
Billy, the narrator, seems to have a dysfunctional family and a cavalier attitude to life. It reminds you of the feckless hero in the Clockwork Orange, but without the violence; or, come to think of it, without even a story behind it.
He does all kinds of things that are not good but definitely not amusing. Which is a surprise because this one is supposed to be a comedy. He destroys calendars given to post to steal the stamp money, he hides letters where not even money is involved out of sheer spite. He disdains work and wants to be a scriptwriter and run away to London. He is insolent to everyone around him.
He goes to work and indulges in stupid puns. He dates two women at the same time, both uninspiring. One of them, whom he calls a Witch, he tries to seduce by adding ‘love pill’ powder in chocolate and is disappointed when she resists his pawing. He has borrowed back the engagement ring he had given her ‘for repair’ and has given it to the other.
He goes on compulsively lying and behaving irresponsibly, indulging in “No 1 thinking” where he is the Lord of All He Sees in a fictional world called Ambrosia and behaving obnoxiously. Even when his grandmother is in the hospital dying, he does not seem to care one way or another.
It all seems so pointless and he seems to go around getting into stupid mistakes because of reckless or self-centred behaviour and does not even seem to realize it.
If the author wanted to create such a character to tell a story, well, we could understand but if the entire story seems to be a description of this character, where do you go from there? And why is it funny when a guy behaves with utter disregard for everyone else? If the author is thinking of characters like Dennis the Menace or the delightful William series, or Tom Sawyer, he seems to have missed the mark by a mile.
It is a small book, but could have been made smaller by not writing it at all, without any loss of significance. Give this one a wide berth.
1/ 10
– – Krishna (Mar 2018)