"You are a monkey child" (Things my girlfriend and I have argued about - Mil Millington)

Member Name: The Duke

Product:	Things my girlfriend and I have argued about - Mil Millington
Date:	08/10/03 (112 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Funny, Good writing

Disadvantages: Terrible ending which ruined the book for me

This book started off as a web site (http://www.thingsmygirlfriendandihavearguedabout. com/) on which Mil Millington lists the various arguments he and his partner Margret have had over some of the strangest things. It's hilariously funny and it's given me loads of entertainment. He's also written a weekly column for the Guardian, which I admit I've never read. One day recently, I went back to the site to find that he'd written a book loosely based on the web site. Seeing as the website was so funny, I ordered the book from Amazon (in their logic-crumpling 3 books for £12 offer or each book at £3.99).

In this book, Pel Dalton works at a university library doing an I.T. job he knows very little about and is continually bluffing his way around. He lives with his German partner, Ursula and their two sons Peter and Jonathan. Arriving into work one day, he finds out that his boss, Terry Steven Russell (or TSR) has simply disappeared with a large sum of money. Thus begins Pel's troubles as he's forced to take on TSR's duties and deal with the students, incredibly long acronyms, other staff members, some dodgy looking Oriental gentlemen and not forgetting the builders who are meant to be building an extension to the library.

Of course, these are the least of his problems as his partner, Ursula, has decided that after their house has been robbed, they're moving. As seems to be the norm with Ursula, she's only the decision maker and it's up to Pel to do the actual donkey work on top of his increasing duties at the university library.

The author, Mil Millington, does quite well here. He manages to put across Pel's increasing stress quite well despite the fact that there were times Pel did something I thought was simply ludicrous. The writing is very witty, and I found there were a few laugh out loud moments in the book (mostly down to his 'discussions' with Ursula rather than plot related). The
characterisation is excellent, although part of me wonders if that's because Millington is a good writer or whether that's down to the main characters in the book (i.e. Pel's family) being closely based on Millington's own family.

The actual plot is a bit thin on the ground, and simply acts as a tool to send Pel from one stress increasing moment at the university to another, or from one argument with Ursula to another.

Where I have real trouble though is the ending. The book simply stops just when I really started to get interested in the whole thing. There's no warning or anything (except for the fact you know that the pages are getting thin!) and I must admit I was quite angry to suddenly find the book finished where it did.

Overall, I find this book hard to recommend to other people. It is strange, because I enjoyed reading it at the time, but I thought that the ending basically ruined the rest of the book. The website is just as funny, if not funnier, and the bonus is that it's free. Go on, save yourself £3.99 (or £4 if you're "saving" money at Amazon!)

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