Maybe not the very worst book I have ever read, ...but close. On one level, it was readable, in that I didn't struggle to finish it and there were some genuinely funny bits, particularly the Paul Coelho jibes. Other running jokes, notably the whole tiresome 'soup, swoop, loop-de-loop' thing, were just plain silly and repeated ad nauseam.I felt the book was populated by caricatures, rather than characters with real motivations, and so didn't care a hoot about them. There was also no discernible plot, more a series of vignettes. 'Harriet meets martial arts fanatic, loses weight, ends up getting beaten up and running away' is not a plot, inasmuch as she doesn't appear to learn anything from her experience, and there is no real climax or resolution. And so much else remained unresolved - for instance, there's much hinting that things are going downhill for Helen, the abominable sister, with her sudden bout of gluttony and half-developed relationship with Julio, then the book ends with no conclusion about her whatsoever. Ditto the ridiculous Toby.Ultimately I could see no justification for hailing Sayle as 'our finest modern satirist', as the backcover blurb pretentiously claims. There is a huge difference between satire and piss-taking. Satire has something significant to say about society and human nature, about what interests and motivates people; piss-taking does not. What, ultimately, does this novel tell us, other than some charities tend to support obscure causes and squander money (and I don't even think that's particularly true) and martial arts aren't always based on sound philosophy? For some really fine modern satire, read Will Self's "The Book of Dave" instead.
This is the second book by Alexei Sayle I have read and both have been very good, funny and also make some cutting points through his excellent use of satire.Harriet is very overweight and very much second best to her friends and 'perfect' sister....until she meets Patrick, oriental martial arts expert who (very amusingly) turns her into a lean fighting machine and also a slim beauty. Harriet is now confident and is able to confront those she was formerly afraid of but something is still lacking...It's a great satire and will be appreciated by British folk in particular I imagine.
What do You think about Weeping Women Hotel (2007)?
This is the first book I’ve read by Alexei (whose comedy I love). I heard him being interviewed saying that his goal was for readers not to hear his voice when they were reading – for me he achieved this. This book had all the very funny and clever detail you would expect from him but the plot was much more female focused than you would expect him to deliver. It was an easy read with some unexpected twists and turns. At times it reminded me of a better written Brigit Jones’ Diary. It focuses on the life of Harriet who lives alone in London – some of the plot surrounds modern day events but it also has some serial and bizarre threads running through it.I would definitely read more by Alexei.
—Catherine
