humour at its very blackest (The Wrong Boy - Willy Russell)

Member Name: robqueen

Product:	The Wrong Boy - Willy Russell
Date:	07/09/01 (170 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: humorous, very moving, unputdownable

Disadvantages: none

Quite simply, this is one of the best books I've read in ages. It's well-told, gripping, deeply humorous and deeply tragic, all at the same time.

The basic premise is that the main character of the book, Raymond Marks, is filling in time on an extremely long-winded journey to Grimsby by writing letters to his hero, Morrissey - hero to many a teenage depressive since the mid 80s. These letters may well never be mailed, but they end up forming his life story. A life story where one minor mishap in the final weeks of junior school was taken out of all proportion, leading from one disaster to another. With hilarious consequences? Well, some of them are hilarious, anyway. A lot more of them are extremely tragic. And some of the events are just plain old bizarre.

The highlight for me was the brilliant array of characters Willy Russell conjures up. So rather than give away any more of the plot, I'll attempt to describe some of the more memorable ones. Some of these only appear briefly, but they all stick in the mind:-

Raymond Marks - the main character and narrator, he leads a life which can only be described as a nightmare, lurching from one disaster to another. At the end of it all, he seems a pretty surprisingly likeable and balanced individual, and one who the reader has real empathy for.

Twinkie McDevitt - one of Raymond's friends from junior school, notable for his extremely camp behaviour, complete with cross-dressing in the nativity play, and pirhouettes in Saindbury's.

Norman aka Gonzo - starts out as a real tough guy, the school bully, but, without giving too much away, turns out to have many hidden depths, and to be one of the good guys.

Ray's mum - long-suffering, but with a heart of gold. Every disaster that befalls Raymond hits his mum just as hard. And she does her very best to be supportive, even at times when it seems almost impossible to do so.

Vera - Ray's Gran.
Vera is one of the strongest characters in the book. Tough as old nails, and refusing to take any nonsense from anyone, at one time in his life, Raymond considers her his only friend in the world. She's certainly the one person who understands him and beleives in him at several points in the story. And she's involved in one of the most blackly humorous moments, involving having a stroke while doing an impression of German philosopher Wittgenstein, while wearing a red nose. You'll really have to read the book to see what I mean about how having a stroke can be humorous, but believe me, in this case, it is.

Uncle Jason - also known as 'Uncle Bastard Jason'. Ray's uncle is one of the real villains of the piece. He's a thief, a manipulator and all-round bad guy. And he's personally responsible for many of Raymond's problems.

The story rolls along at a great pace, as these characters and plenty of others, are introduced one by one. It's one of those books that, once you start on it, you'll find it hard to put down. As one of the reviews on the back cover says, the ending is highly unikely, yet very satisfying. That could be said about the whole book, really.

If you like your humour black, then make sure you read this book. Moving, funny and very, very entertaining.

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