A parody that didn't quite make it (Black Beauty According to Spike Milligan - Spike Milligan)

Member Name: Snu210

Product:	Black Beauty According to Spike Milligan - Spike Milligan
Date:	09/03/07 (149 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Some funny parts, some good prose

Disadvantages: 3/4 of it was boring to read

Being an avid Spike Milligan fan, I decided to read a not-so-well-known book of his – “Black Beauty According To Spike Milligan”. Milligan’s usual style of writing combines poetry and humour with stream-of-thought consciousness and wickedly realistic plots and I expected that this book would be as good as any other he writes – not true.

“Black Beauty…” starts off OK with a poem and a joke and a bit of plot but by the time you get to chapter 17 (they are short chapters) the jokes aren’t really that funny (Black Beauty kicks a lot of people in the balls) and it’s easy to lose interest. I found it even harder to make it to the end as Milligan depicts Black Beauty’s entire life in great detail and the only noteworthy parts were a few of the new owners and descriptions of how Black Beauty’s friends passed away.

Even so, there was the odd joke that stood out – and the starting prose was actually quite good: “As soon as I was old enough to eat grass, my mother used to stuff it down my throat until it kept coming out the back. I went six times that day.” Another bit of prose I liked was: “The mistress was good and kind and had a large bank overdraft.”

Each chapter has a poem at the start and these are quite basic poems and are a bit boring. However, they do seem to fit the personality of Black Beauty himself, who seems fond of poetry but is not a poet.

As a concept, “Black Beauty…” is a good idea, very creative and inspiring to readers who might also want to try their hand at writing similar parodies. I felt that the choice of subject matter was a bit hard to sustain a whole novel with – one day I will read “Robin Hood According To Spike Milligan” and I hope that the story will be more exciting than this one was.

Milligan’s finest books – “The Looney”, “Puckoon” and “Adolf Hitler – My Part In His Downfall” are excellent reads and highly recommended for those who enjoy original humour mixed with literature. “Black Beauty…” I would recommend for those who are hardcore Milligan fans seeking more of his work. Once again, don't pay too much for it - I paid AU$2 on Ebay so I got a bargain.

OTHER RECOMMENDED BOOKS BY SPIKE MILLIGAN:
*The Looney – An Irish Fantasy (my favourite!)
*Puckoon
*Adolf Hitler – My Part In His Downfall
*Mussolini – His Part In My Downfall
*Monty – His Part In My Victory

OTHER INFORMATION:
Publisher: Virgin Books
Year Published: 1996
IBSN No: 1 852 27615 0

Summary: OK for hardcore Milligan fans, everyone else won't be missing much