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Vernon God Little by DBC Pierre

Literature // Jim // 18th April 2004

When you read the publicity for Vernon God Little you will see some very famous books and authors referred to; On The Road, Trainspotting, Kurt Vonnegut, Catcher In The Rye, Tom Wolfe etc, etc. This is not a particularly unusual tactic when promoting a novel, but in this case the book in question absolutely lives up to the hype.

VGL in paperback form.

Disguised as a first-person, rites of passage tale about a sullen Texan teenager, this novel is in fact a rather nasty satire at the expense of the media, the law and the good ol’ U S of A. Vernon is the sole survivor of an incident at school which left his entire class dead and their teacher critically wounded. Although entirely innocent, Vernon is caught up in a twisted web of overambitious local police and cynical media manipulation. Unable to explain the rather embarrassing alibi that would save his neck he decides to abscond to Mexico. Then things take a turn for the worse...

Throughout DBC Pierre takes aim at many targets such as the obese townswomen all trying to outdo each other in the dieting and consumerist stakes. The refrigerator becomes the ultimate icon of status in the small town of Martirio. Later the jokes become less subtle and more pointed, for example the public phone vote to decide which inmate on death row gets the lethal injection next.

A number of interesting characters and themes float throughout the story: Vernon's adolescent obsession with girls panties, the comedy lawyer, the knives in the back metaphor, abusive authority figures and the omnipresent evil con man, Eulalio “Lally” Ledesma.

The interesting thing here is that although you would expect that the author is mostly identifying with the young hero, the reality is that he seems to have more in common with his conniving nemesis.

DBC Pierre (which stands for Dirty But Clean Pierre) is the alias of Peter Finley, a total bastard by all accounts. Finley is an Australian who, it is fair to say, has seen a bit of life. If the articles are to be believed Finley has had a crack at being a filmmaker, an artist and a smuggler. Having lived all over the place and taken to an expensive cocaine and gambling lifestyle, Finley started conning people out of money, most famously selling his best mates house out from under him and legging it.

Now he has made a packet by getting this novel published and winning the Booker prize, proving that there really is very little justice in life, but there is a huge amount of irony.

What ever the ins and outs of Finley’s life, he is an outstanding writer. His past crimes and indiscretions have given him a personal insight on the callous, selfish side of human nature which he puts to good use in this excellent black comedy.

Finley: great writer, complete bastard

More information

Dirty Pierre comes clean

Article from The Guardian about the whole con man thing

Read the first chapter of Vernon God Little

Also courtesy of The Guardian, the start of the novel