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Jason's Reviews > Fine
Fine
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by
This is my first fiction book of 2025 and if the rest I read this year are half as good as this un then I’m gonna be in for a good one. I have previously read short pieces of work by Higgins and had a good laugh, when I saw his debut novel was out I jumped at the chance to read it and it doesn’t disappoint, it’s been a long time since a book has made me laugh this much. In fact I recently saw a discussion on one of the social media platforms recently asking the question “What book has made you laugh out loud the most?� I can say with 100% certainty that it is this beauty.
Our main character is Paul Reverb, great name, seems nice enough, a gentle well meaning person and what follows is a series of ridiculous events. Paul is lonely, tragically so it seems at times, nothing seems to go his way, in fact things seem to become sentient enough to make sure they don’t go his way, from buying a coffee, meeting mates in the pub or a nice quiet toss in the privacy of his own lounge, when Paul puts his mind on a task you soon learn to spot the incoming catastrophe. I felt so bad that I was laughing at his misfortune, at one time I actually told myself to stop laughing cos it’s mean. It doesn’t take long before Paul has got under your skin and you’re hoping that he somehow breaks the curse and gets a happy ending or at least a happy moment and as I started to run out of pages I was worrying that I may have to kidnap Higgins and do a Misery on him to get the ending I wanted.
One fun bit of this book was the nostalgia, I’m guessing I’m of a similar age to Paul because the music, TV and misc items from his past are all things I remember. Highlight moment was Paul listening to Tiny Tears by The Tindersticks, I listened to this so many times, had it on cassette and had to keep rewinding to find the start of the song. Paul is a legend for bringing this back to me.
Absolutely wonderful book, great characters, funniest writing ever and if you ever wanted to get into the head of a horny lonely man then this is the book for you.
Blog review:
Our main character is Paul Reverb, great name, seems nice enough, a gentle well meaning person and what follows is a series of ridiculous events. Paul is lonely, tragically so it seems at times, nothing seems to go his way, in fact things seem to become sentient enough to make sure they don’t go his way, from buying a coffee, meeting mates in the pub or a nice quiet toss in the privacy of his own lounge, when Paul puts his mind on a task you soon learn to spot the incoming catastrophe. I felt so bad that I was laughing at his misfortune, at one time I actually told myself to stop laughing cos it’s mean. It doesn’t take long before Paul has got under your skin and you’re hoping that he somehow breaks the curse and gets a happy ending or at least a happy moment and as I started to run out of pages I was worrying that I may have to kidnap Higgins and do a Misery on him to get the ending I wanted.
One fun bit of this book was the nostalgia, I’m guessing I’m of a similar age to Paul because the music, TV and misc items from his past are all things I remember. Highlight moment was Paul listening to Tiny Tears by The Tindersticks, I listened to this so many times, had it on cassette and had to keep rewinding to find the start of the song. Paul is a legend for bringing this back to me.
Absolutely wonderful book, great characters, funniest writing ever and if you ever wanted to get into the head of a horny lonely man then this is the book for you.
Blog review:
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Reading Progress
December 30, 2024
–
Started Reading
December 30, 2024
– Shelved
January 18, 2025
– Shelved as:
read-in-2025
January 18, 2025
–
Finished Reading
