Rating: 
Summary: Laugh out loud funny.
Review: This book is insightful, endearing and pant wettingly funny.
It manages to catalogue and capture all that is both endlessly lovable and homicidally infuriating about our beloved other halfs. The very negative focus is actually amusing in that the propostuious nature of arguments make one take a longer sideways glance and appreciate our loved one a little bit more.
A life affirming book once the belly laughs and side stiches wear off!
Rating: 
Summary: Read this for the Funny, not the Plot.
Review: ... just that. The plot is, as someone else mentioned, an exaggerated and highly improbable account of how Pel, a hapless slacker in his mid-thirties, winds up in trouble with a Chinese organized crime syndicate and British historical preservation authorities - all with very little of his own doing. He inherits job after job in the university media center where he works, with increasing ineptitude, cluelessness, and workload, and is magnificently set up to be his employer's scapegoat for, oh, just about anything. The skewering of the cheapness of institutions when faced with the prospect of hiring new employees when they can just promote from within and merge the new position with the old is fantastic and accurate. The calmer end of this has to do with his relationship with his SO, Ursula... but it's hardly more believable. Ursula and Pel get along so badly that it's nearly impossible to believe that they would stay together, except possibly for their children. Pel is an avoidant loser who bluffs his way through life, while Ursula is a selfish, relentless harridan; they feed off each other in the worst way. One could suggest that it's only Pel's portrayal of Ursula that makes her look like such an intolerable nag, but if that's so, and if they weren't fictional, it would still be a bad relationship, given his negative attitude towards her. He softens only occasionally from his role as henpecked boyfriend to say that Ursula is very, very, attractive. She lobs insults at him constantly. This relationship is so dysfunctional that I can't think of anyone I know who would want to actually hang out with a real-life Ursula and Pel: the cringe factor is just too high. Nonetheless, this is a highly enjoyable book: it's laugh-out-loud, roll-on-the-floor funny. It will be appreciated by anyone who loves comic novels and/or Brit humor. The comparison another reviewer made to Fawlty Towers is perfect, both in terms of hilarity and in its broadly drawn, "I dare you to dislike them" characters. It's tart enough to appeal to both men and women, and clever in spades. Read it, and be happy that your own relationships are (hopefully) more positive and harmonious than that of the protagonists. A great debut! Can't wait for Millington to write more books.
Rating:
Summary: Laugh out loud funny
Review: A word of caution, do not read this book on a crowded plane when people are trying to sleep. They will be upset with you when you laugh so loud you wake them up. Mil is brilliant, and I am not being paid to say that.
Rating:
Summary: This man is a genius
Review: Anyone who has read Mil Millington's web page or column in the UK Guardian will know that he is a brilliant writer of rare talent and wit. His tales of 13 years of quarelling with his (dearly-beloved) partner Margaret are among the funniest and most original works on the internet. This book is long overdue.
Rating: 
Summary: Funny Jokes, Boring Book
Review: Being somewhat familiar with Mil Millington's website and also being a huge fan of other funny and uniquely sweet novels by British authors, I picked up this book really excited to read it. Unfortunately, I was highly disappointed. Sure, it's funny. There's no denying that much. Millington certainly has experience with entertainingly dysfunctional relationships, and he has perfected the art of humorously cynical commentary. These strengths are perfect for his website, but you can't write a novel consisting of nothing but random digressive stories and witty sarcasm. The plot was so boring I lost interest about a quarter into the book, and at that point the story had hardly even begun. In addition to being unsatisfied with the plot, I felt that Ursula's character was poorly written. On Millington's website he portrays his girlfriend as quirkily crazy, but in the book she comes across as downright mean. We only ever got to see the obnoxious, opinionated, irritating side of her, and it left me wondering why on earth Mil's character, Pel, ever liked his girlfriend in the first place! Then there was the ending. The final chapter started out fine enough, but then the last couple pages were kind of like, "Well, enough of this, I think it's over now . . ." I was just very disappointed with this book. The humor did not make up for lack of anything profound or thought-provoking. (Actually, for those of you who have read the book, there was that one part where Tracey said something about how beauty should be considered an accomplishment even though you're just born with it. She made some good points that I'd never thought about before. It was only like two lines long and really had nothing to do with the book, but I thought it was interesting. It was probably the most thought-provoking part of the whole book.) Anyway, this book has been highly acclaimed by many other individuals, so other readers are likely to disagree with me as well. Whatever floats you boat, I guess!
Rating:
Summary: Good for a chuckle or two
Review: By the owner/creator of the hysterical website of the same name. Unlikely story of Pel, who works in an Enlish university library. When his
boss suddenly disappears - as in skips town - Pel is thrown into his position -
while still expected to hold his old job, too. And suddenly he finds himself
dealing with the Triads, who apparently have a regular transaction ongoing
with the uni. Add to the mix one more job Pel is expected to fill... Oh
yeah, and his girlfriend Ursula, who never agrees with Pel on anything. Amusing farce, well written and very clever. I enjoyed this one.
Rating:
Summary: Good for a chuckle or two
Review: By the owner/creator of the hysterical website of the same name. Unlikely story of Pel, who works in an Enlish university library. When his
boss suddenly disappears - as in skips town - Pel is thrown into his position -
while still expected to hold his old job, too. And suddenly he finds himself
dealing with the Triads, who apparently have a regular transaction ongoing
with the uni. Add to the mix one more job Pel is expected to fill... Oh
yeah, and his girlfriend Ursula, who never agrees with Pel on anything. Amusing farce, well written and very clever. I enjoyed this one.
Rating: 
Summary: Appalling waste of talent and paper
Review: Do you enjoy reading about toxic relationships between spineless pedants and abusive harpies with absolutely no redeeming characteristic or indeed anything in common? Then this book is for you! If, however, you don't find domestic abuse funny in anything more than small abstract doses - as in the author's web log of the same title - then avoid this sloppy and self indulgent semi-autobiographical mess. It's poorly written, shoddily edited, thoroughly depressing, and terminates abruptly and unsatisfyingly. There is humor in here, but it's not even black, more of a tedious muddy gray color. Avoid, avoid, avoid.
Rating:
Summary: Things I have read that made milk squirt out my nose.
Review: Hands down the funniest thing I have read in a very long time. It nearly ruined my marrige. My wife would just be drifting off to sleep when I'd explode laughing over one of Mils' er... Pels exploits. Buy this book, make someone you love shake their head in disgust.
Rating:
Summary: A splendid, funny, and original novel
Review: Having blundered onto Mil's website, I went through several stages during the reading of TMGAIHAA. First, I was aghast, how could he deal with a woman who threatened him with bodily harm if he failed to do housework. Then I was carried away by the humor and intensity of his comments and his girlfriend's quick comebacks. Finally, I began to think about relationships in a different light. Mil's book does not pretend to carry any great revelations but in a subtle way, there are some lessons to be learned--how to accept the person you love for who they are (especially when Mil often reveals that he is quite a character himself!, so obviously, Margret has accepted him). What Mil's book contains is great writing, a well-structured plot with well-placed payoffs all along, genuinely hilarious, witty, and original humor, and first-rate dialogue. This is one book that answers the question "was it worth reading" with a hearty "Hell, yeah!"
Now onto his second novel, A Certain Chemistry. Let's hope there are more to look forward to.
Neal Stevens
Houston, Texas
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