Vernon God Little (2003)
Who wrote it?
Peter Warren Finley, better known as DBC Pierre (1961-; active 2003-), born Old Reynella, South Australia. His youth was spent dotting around the globe, with stints in the US and UK, and a large chunk of his youth (including school) in Mexico. He had something of a troubled youth, spending a year bedridden with hepatitis aged 7 and losing his father (a WWII fighter pilot turned renowned scientist) as a teen. His late teens and twenties involved a fair amount of heavy substance abuse, and he began writing the novel that became Vernon God Little in the 90s, drawing heavily on his youthful experiences of Mexico and the US.
Accepted by Faber & Faber on 11 September 2001 (oddly the same day as the publication of 2002’s Booker Winner, Life of Pi…), his debut novel became a sensation, becoming the first novel to win both the Whitbread (now Costa) debut novel award and the Booker in the same year, as well as picking up a Wodehouse Everyman prize for comic writing. He’s subsequently written four more novels, two of which (Ludmilla’s Broken English and Lights Out in Wonderland) form a loose thematic trilogy with Vernon God Little. The “DBC” in his pen name apparently stands for “Dirty But Clean”, referencing his troubles and subsequent cleaning up.
What's it about?
Vernon God Little is the story of Vernon Gregory Little, a teenager in smalltown Texas whose life is turned upside down when his best friend is responsible for a massacre at his high school. Although Vernon was absent for the event in question, running an errand for his teacher, he ends up being pinned with blame for the atrocity, accused of being an accessory and eventually perpetrator of the crime. He’s undone by a combination of outright self-serving treachery (from his mother’s romantic interest and all-round sleaze “Lally”), poor decision making from older relatives and friends (who encourage his repeated escapes from law and order) and herd mentality (where eventually everyone, including his own mother, comes to blame him, because the telly tells them to…)
He eventually succeeds in fleeing to Mexico, where his case is further destroyed by a sting operation using a former crush who claims to be helping him. Ultimately, the ludicrousness of his situation becomes heightened as he is accused of multiple murders across the breadth of Texas. A televised trial sees him sentenced for the high school killings based on an unhinged outburst from a clearly unsuitable witness, and things get yet more absurd as his time of death row is documented for a reality TV show, the brainwave of the aforementioned Lally.
What I liked
Well, this is certainly (for the second year in a row) like no other previous Booker winners. For the first time (I think?), it feels like we’re firmly outside Britain and obvious Commonwealth-type countries, with a jarring but refreshing dip into North America.
It’s also an energetic mix of styles, combining a coming of age narrative with dark satire, and a somewhat absurdist sense of humour that we definitely haven’t seen thusfar in Prize winners.
It’s written in a fresh, vernacular style that feels authentic to its teenage protagonist, but is far from impenetrable (in fact the vernacular style really amounts to little more than repeated use of “fucken” as a substitute swear, and malaprop-ish mis-namings of famous historical figures and celebrities… but it works)
There’s a refreshing realism to it. Vernon’s “anal fixation” (as later diagnosed) doesn’t exactly make for an aesthetically pleasing reading experience, but it feels true to his condition and evidently rubbed a few prudish critics up the wrong way, which you always have to admire.
There are some nicely done twists in there, which keep things exciting. Again, this reads more like a satirical take on a popular thriller than a typically serious Booker-ish novel. All to be admired.
What I didn’t like
Some of the above contributed to making it feel a bit lightweight. I liked the authenticity of Vernon’s reactions to the massacre (repression, self-preservation, etc) but it meant that there was little scope for deeper engagement with the many issues (sexual abuse, bullying, racism, guns, etc, etc, etc) and it therefore had a tendency to feel glib in places - retreating behind superficial satire when tackling big issues.
I think I would have enjoyed this much more if I’d read it in my teens (not chronologically possible unfortunately) or even at the time of release, when I was in my early twenties. Like The Catcher in the Rye and similar coming of age narratives, I feel the angst and righteous energy loses much of its appeal from the jaded rear-view mirror of grown-up-ness.
While some of the twists work, the turnaround at the end felt hurried and unsatisfying. The humour in the source of the “evidence” wasn’t lost, but again it verged on feeling just a little bit silly.
Parts of this perhaps highlight the danger in awarding prizes to novels that focus quite so heavily on the here and now. There’s a lot in here to enjoy and admire, but with the benefit of hindsight, aspects like the Reality TV death row show feel like a weird combination of dated, over-done, and redundant (satire has eaten itself in the last half decade, I guess?)
Food & drink pairings
Copious amounts of fried delights from the Bar-B-Chew Barn
Fun facts
Surprisingly for such an obviously cinematic and entertaining novel, it’s yet to receive movie treatment. It has been adapted for the stage several times, but movie adaptations have repeatedly fallen through. Film adaptations were mooted in 2005 and 2012 (the latter with Werner Herzog at the helm, temptingly), but as yet nothing has surfaced.
Some nice gems from judge DJ Taylor about the behind the scenes action. I particularly enjoyed this one, referring to one of Amis Jr’s more famously maligned novels:
“There were several memorable clashes of opinion, the funniest by far coming when the chair, John Carey, trying desperately to persuade us of the merits of Martin Amis’s Yellow Dog, read aloud from a paragraph describing the death-throes of a dying fly, at which point Francine Stock and I caught each other’s eye across the table and began to giggle.”
Taylor was also slightly less keen than his fellow judges on Vernon
“The judging process was pretty much a waste of time as all four of the other judges arrived at the longlist meeting convinced that DBC Pierre’s Vernon God Little was one of the great masterpieces of the early 21st century, whereas I thought that it was a promising first novel.”
Vanquished Foes
Monica Ali (Brick Lane)
Margaret Atwood (Oryx and Crake)
Damon Galgut (The Good Doctor)
Zoe Heller (Notes on a Scandal)
Clare Morrall (Astonishing Splashes of Colour)
Strong competition here, highlighting the esteem in which Pierre’s novel was held. Surely one of the most female-dominated shortlists so far for the Booker, perhaps very belatedly reacting to the Orange Prize? Once again it goes to a man, but pleasing at least to some positive movement here.
Speaking of the Orange/Women’s Prize, the 2003 winner of that award (one of the few not won by DBC, it seems!) was Valerie Martin’s Property. Perhaps surprisingly, there was no overlap at all with the Booker shortlist, though Oryx and Crake did surface in the 2004 list. Others getting nods included Zadie Smith (for The Autograph Man) and Donna Tartt for her long-awaited second novel The Little Friend.
Context
In 2003:
Invasion of Iraq, led by the US under George W. Bush and the UK under Tony Blair, preceded by enormous protests in both countries and elsewhere.
Malta, Slovenia, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, Poland, Czech Republic, and Hungary approve joining the European Union in referendums.
End of the 73-year long existence of Yugoslavia as a country, as its remaining constituents are renamed (for now) "Serbia and Montenegro"
WHO issues a global alert on a SARS virus originating in mainland China and spreading to Hong Kong and Vietnam
Completion of the Human Genome Project
Launch of controversial internet forum 4chan; founding of "Anonymous" hacker group
China launches Shenzhou 5, their first human spaceflight
Last commercial Concorde flight brings to an end the era of supersonic air travel
Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code
Mark Haddon, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner
Lynne Truss, Eats, Shoots & Leaves
Finding Nemo
Lost in Translation
Love Actually
Beyoncé, Dangerously in Love
OutKast, Speakerboxxx/The Love Below
Dizzee Rascal, Boy in da Corner
Jay-Z, The Black Album
Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Fever to Tell
Life Lessons
The media is bad
People are gullible and stupid
Running away from the cops is probably never a great look
Score
7.5
I’m inclined to agree with DJ Taylor on this one. It’s a lively, energetic debut novel that’s a lot of fun to read, but for me not the revolution it was heralded as at the time.
Ranking to date:
The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro (1989) - 9.5
Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie (1981) - 9.5
Disgrace - J. M. Coetzee (1999) - 9.5
Moon Tiger - Penelope Lively (1987) - 9
Sacred Hunger - Barry Unsworth (1992) - 9
Oscar & Lucinda - Peter Carey (1988) - 9
The Sea, The Sea - Iris Murdoch (1978) - 9
Life & Times of Michael K. - J. M. Coetzee (1983) - 9
The God of Small Things - Arundhati Roy (1997) - 9
Schindler’s Ark - Thomas Keneally (1982) - 9
Life of Pi - Yann Martel (2002) - 8.5
The Bone People - Keri Hulme (1985) - 8.5
How Late it Was, How Late - James Kelman (1994) - 8.5
Troubles - J.G. Farrell (1970, "Lost Booker") - 8.5
The Blind Assassin - Margaret Atwood (2000) - 8
Possession - A. S. Byatt (1990) - 8
Saville - David Storey (1976) - 8
The Siege of Krishnapur - J.G. Farrell (1973) - 8
Vernon God Little - DBC Pierre (2003) - 7.5
The English Patient - Michael Ondaatje (1992) - 7.5
Rites of Passage - William Golding (1980) - 7.5
True History of the Kelly Gang - Peter Carey (2001) - 7.5
Offshore - Penelope Fitzgerald (1979) - 7.5
Last Orders - Graham Swift (1996) - 7
The Elected Member - Bernice Rubens (1970) - 7
The Conservationist - Nadine Gordimer (1974) - 7
Holiday - Stanley Middleton (1974) - 7
Heat & Dust - Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (1975) - 6.5
In a Free State* - V.S. Naipaul (1971) - 6.5
Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha - Roddy Doyle (1993) - 6
G. - John Berger (1972) - 6
The Famished Road - Ben Okri (1991) - 6
Something to Answer For - P. H. Newby (1969) - 5.5
The Ghost Road** - Pat Barker (1995) - 5.5
Staying On - Paul Scott (1977) - 5
Amsterdam - Ian McEwan (1998) - 5
Hotel du Lac - Anita Brookner (1984) - 4.5
The Old Devils - Kingsley Amis (1986) - 4
*Read in later condensed edition.
**Third part of a trilogy of which I hadn’t read pts 1&2
Next up
Ah, 2004 sees us reach Alan Hollinghurst’s The Line of Beauty, which I consider among my favourite novels, despite only having read it once, more than 10 years ago. Will it hold up? I’m inclined to think so…
