Rating: 
Summary: This isn't funny.
Review: This award-winning book is described as original and funny. Funny thing. I didn't laugh at all from beginning to end. If making fun of stereotypical people from Central Texas makes you laugh, then go ahead and read it. If you like it when an author is playful with tragic themes such as murders on a high school campus and sexual abuse, then this is your book. If you think it's really funny to read words that aren't words at all, but are made up just to hoot at an entire culture of people, then run to your nearest bookstore and buy "Vernon God Little." Most adults are past the bathroom jokes mentality, but if you aren't, you'll love this story which primarily and ultimately focuses on the bowels of Vernon Little. I read the first chapter or two of this book and put it down. I was immediately turned off. A few weeks later, I began reading again, thinking that the protagonist simply couldn't be that lacking in redemption, that something had to give in the plot. After all, this book won the Booker Prize for 2003. I was wrong. Poor Vernon. I mean, how could any protagonist be so stupid? Why didn't DBC Pierre just let ole Vern speak his peace in the first chapter and avoid all those complicated twists and turns he had to suffer through? About two-thirds into the book, the plot began an interesting weave, enough to keep me reading through to the last page, but when I finally shut the book, all I felt was disappointed that I had spent time reading one man's mockery of life in general. It is a satire, indeed, hitting hard the relationship between Vernon and his mother. But the writing style is average at best, alternating between overly metaphorical descriptions and frequently used, purposely misspelled curse words. I'm not totally against satirical writing, not if it is written well and the underlying message is worth the paper it's printed on, but this one just left me frowning and shaking my head.
Rating: 
Summary: trash
Review: astoundingly bad. first snot joke, third sentence. first piss joke, fifth sentence. ratio of: his mom reminding Vernon about his uncontrolled bowels, to, times mom is mentioned: about 99 to 100 (i might have missed one). characters with two characteristics; none. got the booker for it's simplistic anti-americanism.
Rating: 
Summary: Jonathan Swift Meets Kafka Meets Jerry Springer!
Review: Vernon Little, the narrator of this novel is fifteen and best friends with Jesus, another kid in the local high school in Martirio, Texas. Last Tuesday Jesus, wearing silk panties, blew sixteen of his classmates away and then killed himself. The town has to have a "skate-goat," so the position goes to Vernon even though he was running an errand for a teacher at the time of the tragedy. Mr. Pierre has given the world a unigue character in Vernon. He is a master of malapropisms; in addition to being a "skate-goat," he may have to "tstse fly" in his own behalf while a court "stainographer" takes down his testimony. Vernon is also proficient in swearing and knows more ways to describe a girl's panties than Larry Flynt. He is ultimately more sinned against than sinning, however. He has a penchant for getting into trouble as, spinning out of control, he goes from school to jail to Mexico and back to jail again to death row. In addition to developing this great character, Pierre is just as good at creating a convoluted, hilarious plot. Mr. Pierre satirizes wickedly 21st Century America: the court system and law enforcement officers and their obsession with getting a conviction regardless of the evidence or lack thereof; the feeding frenzy of the media in an effort to "create news," the "smallness" of small town America; America's obsession with fast food and resulting obesity. Then there is reality television. The TV audience gets to vote for which death-row inmate gets executed and when. "'. . . we're not talking about executions here--we're talking the ultimate reality TV, where the public can monitor, via cable or internet, prisoners' whole lives on death row. They can live amongst them, so to speak and make up their own minds about a convict's worthiness for punishment. Then each week, viewers across the globe can cast a vote to decide which prisoner is executed next. It's humanity in action--the next logical step toward true democracy.'" And where better for the setting of this novel than Texas, the state that takes first place I believe in executions. Pierre won the Booker Prize for this first novel, which is not like anything you're read lately or will read anytime soon. He supposedly is working on a second novel. Vernon God Little-- you'll find out why he is named "God"-- will be a hard act to follow.
Rating:
Summary: Sizzle and Zing
Review: What an amazing book. I have never before seen such inventive use of verbs, such mastery of language. Which did I enjoy more - the story itself or the incredible writing style? I kept asking myself that question and will have to go back and read it again to find the answer. Now that I know the story and the terrific plot twists and turns at the end, rereading this wonderful book will allow me to appreciate the author's genius, his impeccable facility with words and his respect for his readers' intelligence. Those are all qualities I admire in a writer and this book is a big WOW from the very first page. Don't miss it.
Rating:
Summary: Nonsense with an agenda
Review: Though I hate America along with the British, this book tries to pass itself off as literature when it is nothing more than a juvenile rant. College students could write better than this, and could be much more scathing as well. The Booker Prize committee obviously had an agenda in picking this worthless piece of fiction. Since the Brits don't know how to get back at America for its tyrannical foreign policy, all they can do to express their outrage is award this petty trifle of a book with England's most prestigious literary prize. "Yeah that'll teach those fat Americans to mess with us!" God, it's so pathetic. Writing this novel is opportunism at its worst. Giving it the Booker Prize is downright sacrilege. This is just one of many colossal blunders that the world of literature has spawned throughout the decades. And you can be sure there will be imitators, many of which will also receive awards. Silly Brits.
Rating: 
Summary: Vernon's Journey
Review: D.B.C. Pierre inserts the reader into the aftermath of a horrible incident - a schoolyard massacre - and finds a humanity which includes pathos and pain, and yes, humor. I found that the humor in no way "plays off" the incident itself. What we are given is the unique perspective of Vernon (the killer's best friend) and his reactions to his claustrophobic, small-town society. Vernon is a boy who reacts with an after-shock that plays itself out in extreme avoidant behavior. Taken from this perspective, the novel succeeds. Some readers may wish this novel to be a commentary on violence in general and demand an implied condemnation; in this regard, they will find the novel lacking. My belief is that "Vernon God Little" is about a youth who ultimately learns the beauty of honesty, of letting go, of giving & receiving love, and perhaps most importantly, the freedom that comes from acceptance - not only of others, but also of himself.
Rating:
Summary: Neither God, nor Little
Review: Not so bad, but nothing as great as some previous THE Man BOOKER PRIZE winners-- like A.S. Byatt's 'Possession' or Arundhati Roy's 'The Good of the Small Things' or Michael Ondaatje's 'The English Patient' to name a few. DBC Pierre's 'Vernon God Little' stands in its own merits. It is a story of a teenager Vernon Gregory Little who is accused of shooting some other kids at school. The book begins with a jailed Vernon telling his story. He has been accused of something he claims not having done. Living in a weird place, and with a strange mother, the boy has not so many people to ask for help, until he comes across a so-called CNN journalist, who turns Vernon's infamous act into a show. There are more things when the plot unfolds, but telling that is spoiling the readers' fun. It is strange a book whose subtitle is 'A 21st Century Comedy in the Presence of Death'. We know that the author is dealing with a sensitive subject that terrorizes everyone nowadays: the killing of children at school by their own mates --a Columbine-like act. But one starts wondering how he turned that into a comedy. Pierre's tactic is to make a satire. Does it work? For most of the book it does. 'Vernon' is one of those novels that leave us with mixed feelings: at the same time we want to like that, there are parts that make it impossible to top this book in your favorite books list. The reason for that is simply the author's ability. One on hand, Pierre has created anthological passages such as: 'The Constitution (...) is a tool of interpretation, for the governing majority of any given time. (...) [And] we are the majority. This is our time.'; on the other hand he insists on a game of words playing with their sound and meaning, like saying 'paradime' instead of 'paradigm'. This is so bad to the development of the narrative that he stops toying with this idea after a couple of pages. The feeling left is that this novel is a sort of fluke. Pierre was not taking himself too serious, and wasn't confident that he would be published one day. Therefore he wrote whatever popped up in his mind. It is not a bad thing, but while we feel the writer has potential, some events any many characters are not as well developed as they cold have been. Most of them are stereotypes, archetypes rather than real people. Maybe this was part of the author's project of this satire, but, I believe, the book would be much better with real people instead of The crazy Mother, The Journalist-from-hell, so on and so forth. 'Vernon God Little' is far from being a bad book --but it is not great either. It is fiction at almost its best. With a good heart and a funny spirit Vernon manages to grab some hearts, but I still believe DBC Pierre could do more than that to get our much-deserved admiration.
Rating:
Summary: Laughing Machine
Review: This book is an amazing piece of art. I have never in my life laughed so much. Each Page is packed with insults unheard of and observations which are so insightful of today's Culture. A living history of our craze for media, food and violence. A modern classic. Books do not have to change the history of the world, putting laughter into our lives is enough and this book is three hundred pages of rollicking fun !
Rating:
Summary: Ho-hum
Review: Despite its award-winning status, Vernon God Little is a minor effort. It held my interest and even made me laugh out loud on a number of occasions, but great literature this is not. I didn't really even see it as all that scathing an indictment of American society, at least not in terms of it breaking new ground. If an American had written the book, I'm sure there would have been less uproar. The characters are over-the-top Texan stereotypes, none of them fleshed out, and the plot is pedestrian at best. Still, Vernon as narrator has an engaging voice and manages to evoke a certain dread regarding the outcome of the events described.
Rating: 
Summary: It's Called "Fiction", People....
Review: I find the responses to this novel, especially those from righteously indignant U.S. citizens, to be as ironic and uneven as the book itself. I was both intrigued and disturbed by this dark work. At times repetitive, at times arresting, it presents a voice as memorable as Holden Caulfield's. Admittedly, I enjoy black, biting satire, a genre not to everyone's taste. Even with its weaknesses, it is worth exploring. And to all of you who are offended by the negative, stereotypical portrayal of modern America, please note: the rest of the world is not as ignorant and anti-American as you believe. Some of us take this piece for what it is - FICTION.
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