Vintage Stuff

Rating:
Summary: Below par slapstick. Pointless.
Review: I hadn't read a Tom Sharpe book in maybe ten years, but what I remember were absurd but still gruesomely funny, bawdy adventures in the world of slapstick (the episode in The Throwback with the prophylactic, the oven cleaner and the cheese grater remains one of the funniest things I've ever read).

Well, I stumbled upon Vintage Stuff in an charity shop the other day and thought I'd give it a go for old times' sake.

I wish I hadn't bothered. Tom Sharpe's literary star has waned of late (having reached its zenith in the early Eighties), and reading this book it isn't hard to see why.

The thing about slapstick - and Sharpe should know this, as he's a (past) master at it - is to exaggerate and caricature; extrapolate and inflate, but never so as to totally break the bounds of credibility. There need to be scenes and situations which any of us might find ourselves in, and only the unusual confluence of all of them at once suggests this could never really happen in real life.

In Vintage Stuff, this simply isn't the case. Even the premise is ridiculous, and the decisions, behaviour and reactions of all the characters are plainly silly, without ever hinting at being funny. Sharpe's writing style, usually so light, is leaden; the dialogue isn't credible and the denouement is both unpleasant and anticlimactic. You may spy also a rather spiteful, laboured, resentment of the public school system.

This has all the hallmarks of an empty barrel being scraped. Avoid.

Rating:
Summary: Another great book by Tom Sharpe
Review: I have read all of Tom Sharpe's books and Vintage Stuff is one of his best. The comic style in which he normally handles language, plot and characters is probably at its best in this book. The book lends heavily on the English public school system (as do some of his other books). The plot concerns the adventures of a school master and one of his students as they are induced on a crazy journey through England and France - all due to the schemes of another school master seeking revenge. Like all Sharpe's books, the journey is the reward as most endings tend to be a little anti-climactic. This is mainly due to the fast pace of the work, both in plot and language. If you like a well-written comic adventure, you can't go wrong with this book.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent example of the author's work
Review: I have read all of Tom Sharpe's books and Vintage Stuff is one of his best. The comic style in which he normally handles language, plot and characters is probably at its best in this book. The book lends heavily on the English public school system (as do some of his other books). The plot concerns the adventures of a school master and one of his students as they are induced on a crazy journey through England and France - all due to the schemes of another school master seeking revenge. Like all Sharpe's books, the journey is the reward as most endings tend to be a little anti-climactic. This is mainly due to the fast pace of the work, both in plot and language. If you like a well-written comic adventure, you can't go wrong with this book.

Rating:
Summary: Another great book by Tom Sharpe
Review: This book was almost as good as Wilt, Blott and The Great Pursuit. It was a bit slow in the beginning and the ending was a bit premature. Otherwise it was very funny. Definitely recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Extremely Funny
Review: Would make a good motion picture. American readers will lose a little because of occasional use of British expressions.