Reviewed by Jay Scott Kanes
Award-winning novel Vernon God Little (2003, Faber and Faber, 279 pages), the acclaimed first book by DBC Pierre, staggers to a surprisingly lethargic start. Several times in the first 80 pages, I nearly cast it aside as unworthy to finish. Then the pace quickened, and my interest deepened.
Teenage narrator Vernon Gregory Little faces big-time legal problems. He's accused of participating in a deadly shooting rampage at his school in Martirio, Texas.
Pierre depicts Vernon’s hometown as a dreary place, the state barbeque-sauce capital full of half-baked characters. “I feel the noose of this fucken town tighten around my throat.” Maybe it reflects on small-town Texas that when Vernon flees, bound for Mexico, the book improves immensely.
“A high-voltage tremor cracks through me, of hope, excitement and ass-naked fear. You think I'm going to stick around for the so-called justice system to get its shit together?”
Vernon may be guilty of indiscretions like sprinkling his thoughts with profanities, stashing drugs and pornography or disrespecting his elders, but he's an unlikely killer. Still, circumstantial evidence stacks up.
Betrayals hit hard. “ ‘As Vernon's mother, would it now be fair to number you among the victims of this tragedy?’
‘Well, I guess I am a victim. I really guess so.’
‘Yet you maintain Vernon's innocence?’
‘Oh God, a child is always innocent to his mother – well, even murderers are loved by their families you know.’ ”
Facing a worst-case scenario of capital punishment, Vernon must sprint through legal, logistical and emotional mazes. Can he prove his innocence before the world's menacing evils totally corrupt him?
“ ‘See, first everybody dissed me because my buddy was Mexican, then because he was weird, but I stood by him. I thought friendship was a sacred thing – then it all went to hell, and now I'm being punished for it. They're twisting every regular little fact to fit my guilt....’ ”
The book's title comes from timely jailhouse advice. “ ‘Don't be lookin up at no sky for help. Look down here, at us twisted dreamers.’ He takes hold of my shoulders, spins me around and punches me towards the mirror on the wall. ‘You're the God. Take responsibility. Exercise your power.’ ”
Gaining momentum with each page, Pierre advances the story with vivid details, like: “Gurie's chins recoil like snails shot with vinegar” and “The frown on the sheriff's wife is almost down to her tits. Which is way down.” Even better: “Our heartbeats trail us along rows of warped shacks, past makeshift porches dangling yellow light, into creek-beds, over bluffs; we suck air like jet-engines until we're spent.”
Originally from Australia, the author grew up in Mexico and later lived in England, the West Indies and Ireland. Long a designer, photographer, film-maker and cartoonist, he hit gold with Vernon God Little. The novel won the MAN Booker Prize, the Whitbread Best First Novel Award and the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Award for Comic Writing. A great haul!
Although spiced with amusing moments, Vernon God Little has a serious side, often pitting lesser evils against greater ones. Good intentions battle uphill in Vernon's heart and the surrounding world.
Ultimately, Vernon's experiences give life-lessons. “I sense a learning: that much dumber people than you end up in charge. Look at the way things are. I'm no fucken genius or anything, but these spazzos are in charge of my every twitch. What I'm starting to think is maybe only the dumb are safe in this world, the ones who roam with the herd, without thinking about every little thing. But see me? I have to think about every little fucken thing.”
Despite my initial doubts, Pierre has crafted a clever, even memorable, tale, one that deserved its awards.
Approval rating: 71 per cent.
For more information: www.faber.co.uk
(March 4, 2009)
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