Saturday 20 November 2010

Book review : Premiership Psycho - C.M. Taylor


Hmmm. I've just finished reading Premiership Psycho and I can't actually decide whether I liked it or not ! My initial instinct would be to say that it was at times hard work to read - trying to decipher the pretentious street slang and trawl through the mind-numbingly recurrent critiques of what everyone, from close friends and important personalities to general oddbods on the street, is wearing make it hard to get into and became a bit tedious.

It is also hard to instantly connect with the central character, top footballer Kev King, who narrates his own story in a first person stream-of-consciousness. Kev King is so arrogant and full of misplaced self-importance that it's not easy to warm to him. There is no depth to anything in the story - relationships, descriptions of events, explanations of the crimes - which is understandable and logical, given that Kev is superficiality personified and he is the narrator, but it results in a rather bland, emotionless read.

However, you have to look at the bigger picture and see that this book is a reworking of the highly acclaimed novel/film American Psycho. If you've never read or seen that, you can read a pretty good synopsis and analysis on Wikipedia (here) which really highlights the numerous parallels between the two books. If you read Premiership Psycho as a pastiche, purposely imitating and updating the former work, it is actually a very clever piece of writing.

But my problem is, despite appreciating the biting satire and the moments of slight humour (Kev certainly likes his mixed metaphors !), I just could not like Kev King. Not even a tiny bit ! Characters like nice guy serial killer Dexter have shown that you can be a ruthless killer and still be quite likeable but Kev totally missed out when the charisma and charm were being dished out. Imagine a cross between David Beckham, Matt Allwright from Rogue Traders and Hannibal Lecter minus the good bits ! His over-developed ego and absolute disregard for other people make him totally irritating and I spent the whole book hoping he'd get his come-uppance. The ending therefore left me feeling slightly disappointed.

It's an interesting read which could certainly lead to some really interesting analysis in university tutorials but which ultimately didn't leave me feeling 100% satisfied !

star rating : 4/5

RRP : £7.99

Paperback: 352 pages
Publisher: Corsair (27 Jan 2011)
ISBN-10: 1849015945
ISBN-13: 978-1849015943

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