The Book of Dave

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The book also reminds me of The Dark Tower series from Stephen King in some vague ways, I'd imagine most fans of that series would also enjoy Self's post-apocalyptic adventure. Electronic Boy is a wonderfully entertaining account of Dave Ball’s colourful life in music, told in his own words. The past story charts Dave’s life and breakdown as he tries to reconnect with his son; the future story follows Carl, a child of the remote community of Ham, as he tries to navigate the inquisitorial perils of the Church of Dave in pursuit of the truth about what happened to his father. It was not a smooth process, and some catastrophic ice sheet collapses will have triggered local tsunami that

This very odd book it is only Will Self I have been able to get into which because this is dark creepy science fiction Apocalyptic style book about religion and Taxi drivers . The world in this one is wonderfully imagined and I love the interplay between elements in the past and future.

Events switch back and forth between 90s London and London (Lundun) of the future, and you must attempt to decipher the culture, traditions and relationships of the futuristic version with little to go on.

Interestingly, the plot seems almost sparse – it comes second to the linguistic innovation that Self displays in his language, and in the way that he illustrates the misunderstandings that took place to develop the ramblings of a mentally ill taxi driver and to turn it into a religion. Interestingly, the people of the future have adopted some of the cabby’s dialectical patterns, and so the novel can be hard to read from time to time.

The second narrative is more straightforward, at least on an aesthetic level, and is dominated by the aforementioned Dave, and Self selects episodes from his life to chronicle his inexorable spiral downwards into complete mental collapse. The future portions of the novel are set from 523 AD (dating from the purported discovery of the book). The present-day story is full of brutally honest descriptions of unsympathetic characters, foolish decisions and bad luck. Laura is of course a big bestseller in the US, and I am very much looking forward to bringing her books to countless more readers in the UK and beyond. Funny, frightening, moving, its premise is that the unhinged and misogynistic rantings of a London cabbie are unearthed in a future capital (by then just a series of islands).