Want something to make you smile? (Bright Young Things - Scarlett Thomas)

Member Name: Daisybelle

Product:	Bright Young Things - Scarlett Thomas
Date:	15/08/01 (149 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Very funny, with it and to the point

Disadvantages: I could have read another 200 pages like these easily

Stumbling on this little beauty of a book was really a stroke of serendipity. Serendipity is happy chance, for anyone that didn’t know. An old letch I used to work with, who was of a literary bent, explained to me that his earliest taste of serendipity was shinning up a lamppost as a boy and having a surprise first orgasm. A likely tale, but it illustrates serendipity amusingly well. I wonder if he fell off – never thought to ask at the time.

Anyway, I was darting around the library in a flummox, when I saw a large paperback book with a bright blue cover and big yellow, red and blue words on it. So I grabbed it and fled. Had I taken time to look at it, it might have gone back on the shelf, as it has very Big Brothery/Castaway overtones. Fortunately I was in far too much of a hurry.

So later on at home I started reading – and didn’t stop until the last page of entertainment was finished. At 342 pages it isn’t very long, because the writing is large and the chapters short. Thomas writes at such a pace though, that it’s always a case of I wonder…and you’re onto the next one without noticing.

So what of Scarlett Thomas? Well, she was born in 1972 in London, or so the jacket blurb says. This is her 4th book, the previous ones are – Dead Clever, In Your Face and Seaside. The book cover is strangely short on platitudes from newspaper book reviewers, although she does have a section for this on her website. Is this out of a serene security in her abilities, scorn for the hacks per se, or a subtler disappointment that whilst they praise her writing, they seem to concentrate on the fact that she has nailed the zeitgeist of Twenty-something’s in the late 90s, rather than that she is an excellent novelist?

The book begins by introducing six characters who apply for a mystery job - Bright young things wanted for big project - through snapshots of what they’re up to.


ANNE is an odd but beautiful young woman, who applies for the job because her parents are threatening to stop supplying her with cash. This makes her sound bad I suppose, but Anne’s fairly unusual philosophy on life excuses her somewhat from convention.

BRYN is a drug dealer cum photographer from Southend. Apparently the entire population of Essex are drug dealers, so he’s something of an ordinary bloke. A sort of Whatever–Happened-To-The-Levellers-Lad, if you know what I mean. A bit rough round the edges, but good hearted.

A product of St Martins College, (Thomas immediately acknowledges the typical, but deliberate, irony) EMILY is filling in her time after uni as an escort, offering occasional expensive sex. This is an obvious cue for her to look for a job, as it’s hardly fulfilling post-grad work.

JAMIE’s thing is math, at which he is brilliant. Unfortunately he doesn’t like math. Or his girlfriend.

PAUL is a bit of a hacker with mischief on his mind. Having just lost his job playing cupid on the company e-mail system, he needs a new job from which to focus his recidivist tinkering.

Last but not least, is THEA. Pushing prolapses back in isn’t taxing her, but she applied too late to get on her MA course. There must be something better.

The six of them wake up after heading to Edinburgh for the job interview, feeling none too well, on a small island that’s deserted apart from a solitary house. Oh-oh, you could be forgiven for thinking, this is where the Big Brother/ Castaway/Survivor analogy kicks in. Well, it’s a fair thought to have, but the book was actually written in 1999, as an end of millennia time-capsule (If I recall one of the newspaper quotes correctly), so Thomas has pre-empted the latest in pop culture in several ways with this book. The island seems to be in British waters, from the climate - Taransay again springs to mind – but you c
an rest assured from Thomas’ style that had she had any inkling of the TV phenomena of 2000/1, she would have hugely enjoyed having her characters make frequent comparisons with their situation, because the here and now is her thrill, it seems.

Although I don’t want to give away much more of the plot, it’s too hard not to mention the way the six entertain themselves. The book, it’s worth mentioning, covers a time period of about two days, and it’s fair to say that although everything’s fast paced, she still gives enough of an insight into each character that you’re forced to perceive them as real. She writes in an easy fashion that never taxes the reader, but with an almost perfect control of the pitch, pace and plot, something most authors lack – this is a real strength she possesses. The narrative moves along unfalteringly, and whether the topic is masturbation or eavesdropping, Thomas never gets fazed by her output. This allows her to get away with the smorgasbord of pop culture she heaps on us, ranging from Anne’s potted history, defence and analysis of “Home and Away”- It works, honest – to the interests of the group in everything from early Atari’s to Play stations and PCs.

Back to the home entertainment though. A long game of truth or dare occupies a chunk of the book, and this is a clever vehicle for allowing Thomas to explore her characters make-up, from the outer superficial in to their darkest secrets. It’s greatly entertaining and I find it hard to imagine anyone who won’t cringe, laugh, cry or all three at the realistic grilling she invents for the gang. As throughout the book, sharp humour is everywhere, delivered in Thomas’ matter of fact style. I’m not going to give any of the contents of the game away, as it’d spoil things and this is a book worth reading, but it’s fair to say most people (Well, in my age-group, at lea
st) will know exactly where she’s coming from.

scarlett thomas (She doesn’t capitalise her initials, for some reason) has a website that’s worth a visit if you’re interested further in her. It’s www.bookgirl.co.uk Amusingly she has made comments about some of the reviews the book was given, and here’s a snippet as it gives a flavour of scarlett in a few sentences –

“Thanks, The Times, for the good review of BYT. And I’m not saying you’re thick or anything, and I am grateful…but, uh, IT'S NOT A F**KING SATIRE. There. And that goes for you too Cosmopolitan. Black Comedy? My arse.”

The book is going for £6.99 in paperback, cheaper on-line but the postage soon swallows up any savings. I'm off to find out about the rest of her work.

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