Scan barcode
fellfromfiction's review
3.0
Certainly of its time, but something oddly post-modern about it at times. Also leaves a lot of things dangling, so a bit bizarre all told.
philippurserhallard's review
2.0
A very odd and un-novelistic book, this is essentially a series of gag-laden anecdotes about the career and adulterous exploits of a comedian who we're told is funny and much loved, but who comes across as a bland cipher of extremely dubious morals and political views. It certainly doesn't amount to anything resembling a story, and the ending is as arbitrary and unsatisfying as anything else on offer here. Even the jokes have a pretty low hit rate.
I don't know enough about Morecambe's private life to know whether Sid Lewis is an autobiographical study -- Morecambe himself appears as a minor character and the book's narrator, but that's hardly conclusive. What's clear is that Morecambe is constantly struggling to fit what he wants to say (whatever that is) with the conventions of a novel, and particularly with the stylistic demands of written prose as opposed to spoken monologue. The most interesting bit of texture is a lengthy flashback to Sid's courtship and the morning of his wedding, followed by an interestingly framed sequence where Eric and the presiding vicar reminisce decades later about the ceremony itself. For that chapter it almost looks as if the book is interested in narrative rather than transcribed standup, but the moment passes.
The book is profoundly sexist, treating women as commodities for Sid's appreciation, and flirts with racism without ever quite committing to it (Sid himself is undoubtedly racist by modern standards, but the narrator has a more nuanced view -- one of the few nuanced things in the book, in fact). It is at least in broad sympathy with gay men, but even so there are a couple of uncomfortable moments where homophobia forms the basis of gags.
The only real point of interest for me is that much of the book is set in the world of British TV of the mid-to-late 70s, an era I can just about remember, and provides a certain nostalgia kick on that basis (though it entirely avoids mentioning Jimmy Savile, which is something of a relief). It must have been 30 years since I last heard a joke about Magnus Pyke waving his hands around. The peculiar view that married couples are naturally, understandably and more or less incessantly looking for extramarital sex is certainly something I recognise from the sitcoms of the time, despite bearing no relationship to adult life as I've come to know it since.
If you're a huge Morecambe and Wise fan, you may find this entertaining, although it's hardly typical of Eric's TV work. If not, I can't honestly recommend it.
I don't know enough about Morecambe's private life to know whether Sid Lewis is an autobiographical study -- Morecambe himself appears as a minor character and the book's narrator, but that's hardly conclusive. What's clear is that Morecambe is constantly struggling to fit what he wants to say (whatever that is) with the conventions of a novel, and particularly with the stylistic demands of written prose as opposed to spoken monologue. The most interesting bit of texture is a lengthy flashback to Sid's courtship and the morning of his wedding, followed by an interestingly framed sequence where Eric and the presiding vicar reminisce decades later about the ceremony itself. For that chapter it almost looks as if the book is interested in narrative rather than transcribed standup, but the moment passes.
The book is profoundly sexist, treating women as commodities for Sid's appreciation, and flirts with racism without ever quite committing to it (Sid himself is undoubtedly racist by modern standards, but the narrator has a more nuanced view -- one of the few nuanced things in the book, in fact). It is at least in broad sympathy with gay men, but even so there are a couple of uncomfortable moments where homophobia forms the basis of gags.
The only real point of interest for me is that much of the book is set in the world of British TV of the mid-to-late 70s, an era I can just about remember, and provides a certain nostalgia kick on that basis (though it entirely avoids mentioning Jimmy Savile, which is something of a relief). It must have been 30 years since I last heard a joke about Magnus Pyke waving his hands around. The peculiar view that married couples are naturally, understandably and more or less incessantly looking for extramarital sex is certainly something I recognise from the sitcoms of the time, despite bearing no relationship to adult life as I've come to know it since.
If you're a huge Morecambe and Wise fan, you may find this entertaining, although it's hardly typical of Eric's TV work. If not, I can't honestly recommend it.
More...