Lights Out In Wonderland
Author: D.B.C. Pierre
Publisher: Faber and Faber, 315 pages

THIS book promised so much: “A spell in rehab, a near-death experience with fugu ovaries, a sexual encounter with an octopus, and finally, an orgiastic feast in the bowels of Berlin’s majestic Tempelhof Airport.”

Unfortunately, it didn’t live up to the intriguing cover blurb.

Protagonist Gabriel Brockwell’s “spell in rehab” is merely an overnighter, after having being admitted while unconscious by his father, due to an encounter with some class A drugs.

His “near-death experience with fugu ovaries”, is a mere brushing of said poisonous delicacy over the inside of his lips; the cephalopodian rendezvous is over in two paragraphs, and in any case, doesn’t even involve him, except as an observer.

Same with the “orgiastic feast”, which is the climax (pardon the pun) of the book, yet which is danced around, but never quite fully plunged into (I beg your pardon again).

Instead of such promising plot points, it would have been more accurate to say that this book is about Capitalism (yes, with a capital “c”).

Brockwell is an anti-capitalist activist who decides that nothing matters any more, and so, decides to die. The beauty of his suicide plan, however, is the realisation that he doesn’t have to do it immediately. And thus, his life enters into a state of limbo (a word that is oft repeated throughout the book, along with “decadence”, “nimbus” and “whoosh”), where nothing seems to have any consequences, because, well, he won’t be alive for long enough to deal with them.

So Brockwell decides to fly off to Tokyo to have a final drink and a few snorts of cocaine with his childhood best friend Nelson Smuts. While Smuts, a chef apprenticing at a fugu restaurant, initially resists the twin temptations of alcohol and coke, he eventually caves and starts getting high with Brockwell while still on duty at the restaurant.

This eventually leads to the near death experience with fugu ovaries, as well as the sexual encounter with the octopus, not to mention Smuts being arrested and brought up on murder charges after a little illegal game of Russian roulette with fugu innards with an intoxicated customer.

And so Brockwell, who realises he can’t off until he gets his friend out of the trouble he dragged him into, sets off on the next phase of his last hurrah to rescue his friend. Unfortunately, things don’t work out as he envisions, and the path to save Smuts seems to lead down the slippery slope of Capitalism. Cue one orgiastic feast in the bowels of Berlin’s Tempelhof Airport.

I’ll be honest: this book wasn’t exactly my cup of tea.

For me, the language served to obscure the meaning of the words, rather than illuminate them; although I admit that it might just be me being dense.

After all, D.B.C. Pierre did win the 2003 Man Booker Prize for his first novel, Vernon God Little. This novel, along with Vernon God Little and his second book, Ludmila’s Broken English, are supposed to form a loose trilogy of sorts.

The ideas and concepts did not spark any interest in me, except for a handful of observations that were quickly over in a few sentences. Brockwell, to me, is just self-indulgent and self-centred, and made me want to smack him and tell him to grow up.

But I don’t discount the fact that there are probably readers who might be able to appreciate this novel better than I.

My advice: go through the first three chapters, including the footnotes, and see how you feel. If you like it, then it’s probably a safe bet you’ll enjoy the rest of the book.

• Oil palm firms team up with Sabah to protect Malua Forest Reserve
• Survey: Britons love tea more than coffee
• New York City relies on automation technologies to face challenges of urbanisation
• Powering the Big Apple
• Build robust cities
• Fun with words
• Rail marvel in New York
• Fun with synonyms
• Carnegie Hall gets green facelift
• Win The Good Food Cook Book!