| Product: |
The E Before Christmas - Matt Beaumont |
| Date: |
11/01/03 (305 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: funny, easy read
Disadvantages: not long enough, some characters could have been better used
Matt Beaumont, the author of "E" and its sequel, "The e before Christmas", claims to have been fired from some of London's foremost advertising agencies. In "e" and "The e before Christmas" (hereafter called "tebc") he follows the daily ins and outs of Miller Shanks, a typical London advertising agency, which is full of incompetence, indiscretion, egos and attitude problems with a liberal dressing of deceit and bitchiness. Whereas "e" covered Miller Shanks' voyage into the new millennium, "tebc" covers its attempts to organise the Christmas party the following Christmas - and as readers are aware, the veneer of order and complete control is shattered. My mother had presumed it would be some "ecstasy-related" tome, but of course that is wide of the mark! Yes there are drugs in this one, but mainly the kind snorted up rolled up twenty pound notes.
Style:
The book is made up of individual e-mail messages, which fly around the office, as well as to ex-colleagues in rival firms or on the scrap heap. Obviously the style is therefore clipped and concise - even after both of the books it is still very difficult to imagine what people like Susie "Judge Dredd" Judge-Davies really look like - there is no time wasted with detailed descriptions of the characters, probably a deliberate thing to have done on Matt Beaumont's part, as the characters might otherwise be too clearly identifiable with the characters he might have rubbed up the wrong way whilst in advertising. As ever nothing is done by halves - there is a definitely feeling that the situation is exacerbated by Miller Shanks' tendency to over-extend itself. Obviously the frayed tempers and bawdiness of the characters means that their messages are not the most erudite - and there is a liberal colouring of profanities - so if that disturbs you, you might not like this one.
Plot:
The
plot of the book is fairly straight forward - readers of the first book will know that the company will have a disaster on their hands unless someone can save the day. This time around, after "e" dealt with grappling with Gloria Hunniford, trying to win an ad campaign for Coca Cola, with a liberal dosage of drugs and sex, and utter indolence, the goal is to host a mega-bash for the Christmas Party, rather than the traditional affair in a made-over office car park, especially as all the European CEOs will be in town - leaving the door open for disgraced CEO David Crutton, who was sent to Bucharest over his shambolic handling of the agency, to return to haunt like a spectre. There is of course the follow-up to the Barbie campaign which is initially mentioned at the end of "e". Given that the book is only 120 pages long it would probably spoil the reader's enjoyment of the book if I were to divulge any more.
Characters:
With most of the characters from "e" being retained - some though are more peripheral than before (e.g. David Crutton and Simon Horne), the book is best read if you have already read "e" - although you may not need to re-read "e" directly before picking up "tebc". There are a couple of new characters, Wanda Bragg and Ed Young who add a bit more variety, the former being a lesbian with a seemingly voracious sexual appetite and interesting predilections and with more than an eye on one of the secretaries, whilst the latter is a foul-mouthed wide boy whose forthright nature often borders on the obscene. Nigel Godley - "the sad git from accounts" - is more muted than in the first book, being ever the kill-joy.
The book:
The cover is in a similar style to that of "e" - contrasting colours make it leap off the shelf at you - this time it is green and red rather than the orange and purple that adorned "e". Whilst "e" weigh
ed in at around 330 pages, this is also a far more slender tone - it took me about 45 minutes to read the 120 pages. I felt a bit cheated really, having expected a larger sequel - there was certainly more that could have been said, and more could have been made out of Wanda, who is only used very sparingly and for whom there was a lot more scope. I felt a bit cheated by only get 120 pages for the GBP 2.99 paid for this book, with the original having been GBP 6.99 for 330 pages. Mind you it is worth taking a look on amazon.co.uk as there are often offers for both books as a package. The book was entertaining, but given the fact I'd read it in under an hour I felt a bit short-changed. For this reason I have docked it a star!
Summary:
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