Surreal political satire, darkly humoured and at times plain barking.
The Government has sold the country to a supermarket on eBay, only for the Civil Service to buy it back and launch their own benign dictatorship. Ten years on, it is all going horribly wrong. There are Hairshirts on every corner, the incompetent Leader and his transvestite first lady pole dance and the dogs are being systematically eradicated to deflect attention from the ruling Department’s failure to achieve their promises. Doggone is a modern fable, a surreal and bizarre satire on a world of spin greed, excess and the dangers of letting politicians rule unchecked.
Professional Reviews
Sam Smith
'Narrative punctuated by Vonnegut-type aperçus Doggone is an inventive satire that Swift, Pope, et al, would have been happy to have put their name to.
A future-set retrospective on a 21st century Britain, contemporary bullshit is taken to excess as the entire country is bought by two civil servants with points on a loyalty card.
Vignettes of absurdist dialogues - think Pete'n Dud, Bird and Fortune - detail all too credible nonsense secenarios. And funny, laugh aloud funny.
No institution, no region, no nation, no profession, no occupation, (no individual?) is spared at least a scathing aside. Erik himself makes an appearance as a sadistic p.a.: thankfully I don't rate a mention. Unless I'm that 'piece of worthless shit' Smythe.
Crazy, funny, and all too plausible; so please don't show Doggone to that arch-creep Gordon Brown: with no ideas of his own he might well use Doggone as a template.'
DJ Kirkby
Don't be fooled by the innocent looking cover! This book dishes up piping hot surrealism by the ladleful. Best read while imbibing your favorite tipple in order to lubricate your brain to an appropriate viscosity.
It was often 'laugh out loud' funny, though tainted with a disturbing aftertaste of doubt; was it really appropriate to have laughed at that point in the book?
I feel it only fair to warn you that this is the kind of book that works its way into your subconscious and you will find yourself unexpectedly thinking about it.
Like the more notorious roller coasters, the ending leaves you thinking, 'That was a bit scary but whoo hooo what a ride!'. I was left with a somewhat masochistic desire to re-read it in case I had missed any of the subtle nuances the first time round.
Unexpectedly enjoyable from cover to cover with characters I loved and ones I loved to hate!
Doggone, written by Erik Ryman will be published by the wonderful world of Bluechrome on Oct 1st 2008. Get in the queue now for this book which is likely to become a cult classic...'what kind of cult?', did I hear you ask? Well you'll just have to read the book and find out!
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