This is the dirtiest, creepiest, most outrageous, most insane, more provocative novel I’ve read in some time. It’s also the most biting, razor-sharp satire I may have EVER read.Richler takes everything that is cliche about the 1960s and flays it like a freshly-caught salmon. Feminism, capitalism, communism, anti-semitism…ANY “ism” you can think of…it’s all skewered via the egos of some of the most vacuous cast of characters ever assembled. They are uproarious, disgusting, hilarious, insulting…walking, talking airheads, unable to escape their desire to belong to an oppressed minority. Minorities obsessed with terrorizing the majority, for slights that were, at one time, real…but more often imagined.Even better are the digs at Hollywood films, and the television talk show industry. Whether it be trans-sexual studio moguls and cloned film stars designed to appeal to EVERYONE, or snobby intellectual TV hosts looking down their noses at traditional values…and encouraging audience participation in the ridicule. As for the whinging about sexual frustration and gender roles…good lord, this takes the biscuit!At times, Richler pushes a little too hard…but this is a novel that speaks not only to a generation long gone, but to a society still obsessed with similar superficial concerns. A generation of Fox News/Paris Hilton/Jersey Shore watchers…forty years after the fact, by Richler’s count. This novel is a true eye-opener…and it’s guaranteed to make you laugh out loud at least a dozen times!
This was something of a misfire, I think.It got off to a rocky start when I couldn't tell if it was satire or just spectacularly offensive. It became clear that it is intended to be satire, and there were even one or two places where I actually laughed, but on the whole it was handled strangely. It felt a little like all the ingredients were thrown into the pot and then the author just decided that he was done. Like, it's the sixties, stuff is ridiculous, that's my point.The writing, too, I was not wild about. It was like one of those books written for the best-seller lists--easy to plough through, thriller prose. Maybe that too was intended to be part of the satire? If so, it didn't work for me either.It seems like it could or should have been better.
