This Is Your Life

April 12, 2004
U.K. television writer and author O'Farrell (Global Village Idiot
; The Best a Man Can Get)
brings his very British brand of self-flagellating humor to his latest novel, a scathing satire of celebrity culture and the numbing effects of fame. Jimmy Conway, a part-time teacher and aspiring screenwriter, receives a bundle of letters on his birthday, delivered by his overachieving older brother. The grandiose letters, which Jimmy wrote as a boy to James Conway, his future self, highlight the aimlessness of his life. "It wasn't what I'd written that embarrassed me, it was the obvious and enormous gulf between what I'd hoped to become and who I now was that made me feel so humiliated," Jimmy realizes. But soon he finds himself catapulted toward the fame and fortune he always dreamed of when he takes advantage of happenstance to launch a career as a stand-up comic. O'Farrell skewers the media: through journalistic shoddiness, Jimmy becomes a nationally known stand-up comic, even though no one has ever seen him perform. He gets his first break when TV journalists take him for a friend of a famous comedian in their greed for a sound bite. Later, a dishonest critic gives him a brilliant review because she's too lazy to come to his show, and from there, the publicity snowballs. Jimmy's epistolary advisories from his young self appear at the start of each chapter, usually in comic contrast to the reality of his adult life. O'Farrell delivers an amusing farce. Agent, Georgia Garrett, A.P. Watt.
(May)

Forecast:
Media satires are abundant, and this British version may get lost in the shuffle, but O'Farrell—who has written jokes for the speeches of Tony Blair—mines a rich vein with skill and vigor.

April 15, 2004
O'Farrell's novel is a satirical riff on the ever timely subject of fame. Jimmy Conway lives alone in a small town on the southern coast of England, where he tries to teach surly teens English as a second language. All the while, he dreams of being famous. Celebrity happens through a chance encounter with TV comedian Billy Scrivens shortly before the comic's death. Jimmy stumbles into the spotlight, convincing a gullible journalist that he's a hot new comedian-so hot that he doesn't advertise where he's performing and has never appeared on TV. The nebbishy Jimmy continues to skate from one publicity triumph to another with a lot of luck and the stubborn refusal of the famous to admit they haven't been aware of him all along. O'Farrell, who has written for the hit British TV series Spitting Image and for Tony Blair (back when he did stand-up comedy?), keeps the jokes coming in this thoroughly engaging and quick read. A worthwhile addition to any public library, especially where British satire (a la Ben Elton) does well.-Bob Lunn, Kansas City P.L., MO

Copyright 2004 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.