Is it evicted or does it win the big prize? (Dead Famous - Ben Elton)

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Product:	Dead Famous - Ben Elton
Date:	28/08/05 (208 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Witty, different in a genre that can be staid.

Disadvantages: Elton's brash style may not appeal.

Nominations, eviction, nomination, murder. This is the shocking chain of events that makes this series of "House Arrest" the most lucrative and popular yet. Much to Detective Inspector Coleridge's disgust the show goes on regardless and to make matters worse every one of the housemates has a motive. But first the Detective must figure out how somebody can murder someone in the full view of millions and yet leave no trace of their crime?

"Dead Famous" by Ben Elton is a strange hybrid of a book. Elton incorporates elements of thriller, drama and humour into his parallel world of reality television. Obviously drawing on the many series of Big Brother as his inspiration, Elton creates the ultimate in reality television shows in the form of "House Arrest". With a full complement of housemates from the anarchist to the token lesbian what Elton has created is a scathing attack on the reality TV phenomenon in the form of a traditional whodunit.

Those familiar with the characters and concepts of Big Brother and other reality tv shows will most appreciate Elton's attack on the vanity, shallowness and desperation of the housemates. He brutally dismantles these characters from start to finish showing us as readers the price of manufactured fame and the true cost of being "Dead Famous". Perhaps most disturbingly the characters and situations that he obviously created as extremes of the reality TV genre have actually been surpassed in many cases by the real Big Brother and its many competitors.

Elton does show some sympathy for the housemates he has created but pulls no such for the TV executives and corporate types in his novel. I had presumed the left wing anarchist who I remember from 1980's stand-up had all but disappeared in a wash of new labour but this novel would suggest otherwise. Ironic considering Elton has amassed a fortune from his relationship with the BBC and TV productions such as "The Young Ones" or "The Thin Blue Line". Nonetheless, putting my cynicism aside Elton writes a convincing thriller with some surprising twists. His lambasting of the greed and corruption of television lends it to hilarious over the top characterisations.

The isolation of the "House Arrest" environment also gives the novel a situation comedy style which sits well alongside Elton's brash, vulgar style of writing. This is in no way criticism either as there is much to like about "Dead Famous". In a thriller genre which relies on elaborate prose, complex dialogue and difficult to fathom multiple plot lines it is refreshing to read a thriller with pace and yes, even humour that does not require a degree in criminology to understand. Once again I cannot help but feel a sense of unwitting irony on Elton's part in that his novel is such pure escapism and out and out entertainment which is just the thing he is trying to mock. Perhaps, I underestimate his standard of writing and this is intentional but I remain unsure.

All in all this a thoroughly enjoyable novel providing you can suspend your disbelief at Elton's dubious double standards. If you can this is 384 pages of reality TV at its best.

Cheapest price: £5.49 in paperback with delivery at Play.com
ISBN: 0552999458
Publisher: Transworld

Summary: A novel approach in a subdued, formulaic genre.