Oh my, book reviews are scary (Are You Experienced? - William Sutcliffe)

Member Name: michaird

Product:	Are You Experienced? - William Sutcliffe
Date:	02/10/02 (437 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Very funny

Disadvantages: No, I don't think so

Dave is a student, or at least he will be, he's on his gap year. While all his friends have gone exploring the far reaches of the globe in order to 'find themselves' Dave has spent most of his year working in Sock Shop, a job so mind numbingly dull and pointless he's actually beginning to doubt the very existence of socks.

Dave wants to travel, really he does, but he doesn't want to go anywhere dirty, he doesn't want to 'find himself' he doesn't want to be reminded how rich and lucky he is.

His friends launch into long winded theories about challenging cultural assumptions but he thinks what they really mean is 'the dope's really cheap' because as far as Dave's concerned anyone who talks about challenging their cultural assumptions and then goes to Thailand is clearly talking out of their a**e.

That is, until he meets Liz, his best friends girlfriend. He his taken by her stunning good looks and her thrillingly bossy nature, he's not too worried about the best mate, he is after all up a mountain for eight months. Of course he and Liz are just mates, mates that enjoy naked massages and intimate play sessions (as far as Liz is concerned, blowjobs do not constitute a sexual relationship, where have I heard that before?).

When Liz invites him to spend three months with her in India he jumps at the chance with visions of hot exotic sessions on a huge double bed.

Things don't quite go to plan, Dave has trouble coping with Liz, street beggars, Hindi musicals, food made of lentils and pretty much everything to do with India. He doesn't want to have his westernised attitudes changed or his spiritual centre found, but he does want to survive his big trip. That's how Dave see his trip, a survival trip, he treats every aspect of it with a deep sense of dread and you would feel sorry for him if his character inspired even an ounce of sympathy, but it doesn't.



Dave is drawn as a superficial and selfish nineteen-year-old, he knows he's selfish and he doesn't really care. He has a one-track focus when it comes to his relationships with women, with little success I must say. His self obsessed view of the world all helps to add to the whole humour of the story; his experience of having the squits had me laugh out loud both of the times I read the book.

One of the good things about Dave is he isn't afraid to say what's on his mind, leading to some painfully accurate exchanges with his fellow companions:

Liz, equally as selfish and self absorbed as Dave, she takes to the whole 'Indian experience' and also takes to hugging beggars. You can feel his infuriation and frustration when dealing with Liz; she inspires even less sympathy that he does.

J, or Jeremy, in India to find his spiritual self. Aided somewhat by regular cheques from his father in Tunbridge Wells.

Fee and Cazz, fresh from washing lepers in a nearby colony where the lepers are interviewed before they get a hospice place to ensure that they have a positive attitude (so as not to upset the travellers, otherwise they wouldn't learn anything, would they?)

Ranj: An Indian boy from Putney, on the run from an arranged marriage and out to have as much fun as possible before he's caught.

William Sutcliffe's writing is engaging; it flows nicely in and out of narrative and dialogue with ease and realism. He manages to invoke sympathy for a character that, in real life, you would almost certainly label as a prat. He has a brilliant comic style which doesn't rely on there being 'jokes' throughout the book but on the simply ridiculous things people do and say, which are sharply observed.

He has obviously been a traveller at some point in his life and he does take a few low, easy swings at the whole middle class 'gap year in the third world' notion. He c
ould
have looked more deeply into it, exposing the overall ignorance of many travellers to the realty of poverty in the third world, but he doesn't, this book is a comedy and its obvious he wants to be a light hearted satire.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this, and I have read it twice, and I would recommend it to anyone: if you are in your late teens you probably are, or know, many of the people in this book. If you're older you will probably remember similar things (or have a teenager that you can laugh at) it's by no means a great literary masterpiece but it is well written and fun.

I bought my copy in a second hand charity shop for a pound, I polished of the 250 page paperback in about three hours (although I do read very fast). Amazon sells it for £4.79 (or you can buy used from their market place much cheaper)

So do I still think book reviews are scary?

Erm

Yeah

Summary: