Author: DBC Pierre
Nationality: English/Australian/Mexican/Irish/American
Year Published: 2003
On This List Because: Won the Man Booker Prize in 2003
Primary Location: Martirio, TX
Secondary Locations: Houston, TX
Acapulco, Mexico
Edition I Read: First Edition Paperback (hadn’t won the Booker yet)
First Sentence: “It’s hot as hell in Martirio, but the papers on the porch are icy with the news.”
Another Teen Survival Tale
After reading Life of Pi, I moved on to the next year’s Booker Prize winner, which was very similar and completely opposite to Book One. Both won a British Award with a tale that has almost nothing to do with Britain. Both are mostly or entirely in first person, and have a teen protagonist which comes very close to death. But while Pi’s mind was like a carefully arranged bento box of delicious information treats, Vernon G. Little’s mind is like a empty plastic pudding container. In Life of Pi the narrator starts off as reliable, clear as a bell, and delightfully smooth and confident, and later on is revealed as a bit more unreliable than you may have first thought. Vernon starts off in a haze of confusion and resentment, and his position clarifies as his life continues, finally ending with a mature and reliable dignity.
The copy of Vernon God Little I got from the library was worn and beat-up with a creased and dog-eared front cover and pages on the brink of falling out, the opposite of the immaculate illustated edition of Life of Pi. The depiction of the fictional Texas town was repulsive, and had that element of depressed teen thinking that hates everything, not through specific aggression, but blanket dread and revulsion for a world that seems obviously irredeemable. This youthful antipathy leads to thoughts of escape and rebirth, and the best part of the book is how Vernon, against all odds, almost succeeds in doing so. Read the rest of this entry »
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