"It's 2.15 a.m., you're in bed alone and the phone wakes you.

Your eyes are wide and your body tense before it has completed so much as a single ring. Ans as you wake, in the tiny moment between sleep and consciousness, you know already that something is wrong."

A great read. Full of US and UK paranoia from the 80s. Also a good dose of hippy social justice versus the might of the armed forces.

Very funny.

Picked up at our impromptu meetup this afternoon.

Nice to see you again, Marcie130!

^ ^
00
=+=
v

Not one of Elton's best, but still a quick, fun read. The ending was a bit disappointing though - after the relatively slow pace of the book (which after all, does manage to stretch a few hours of one night out to fill an entire novel - shades of James Joyce...), it feels very rushed, like he'd suddenly hit his page limit and wanted to wrap everything up neatly as quickly as possible.

I did get the impression also that a lot of the book was just the author pining for the "good old days" of the 80s himself (the idea of Ben Elton one day looking back at Thatcher's reign with nostalgia would have been laughable at the time, but in the same way that Jack in the book regrets the end of the cold war now that the US doesn't have a clear enemy to fight, perhaps Elton also misses having such an obvious target for his comedy...)

It would be interesting to know how this book would have been different (or if it could have been written at all) if it had been written just a few years later. The state of the world (and especially US politics) has certainly changed a lot since 1998.

^ ^
00
=+=
v

Given to lytteltonwitch, I think?

^ ^
00
=+=
v

Picked up a few weeks ago and realised I hadn't logged it

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

This book was on my reading pile but I am unable to get it read before leaving the country and it is therefore being given to another bookcrosser.

The Christchurch bookcrossers meet up on a regular basis,the information is on BCNZ Yahoo NZ The main organizers are FutureCat and myself and we welcome new members to our very friendly group.

From a box of books from lytteltonwitch.

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

Left on a seat outside Cafe Bleu.

I found the book whist out on the town celebrating the last night of my skiing holiday. Took it back to Mackay, Queensland, Australia. I read it pretty much in one day. Once finished with it I left on a bench on Sydney St Mackay

CAUGHT IN CHRISTCHURCH SOUTH ISLAND NEW ZEALAND