Doggone by Erik Ryman

Doggone

a political fable
by
Erik Ryman

The Government has sold the country to a supermarket on eBay, only for the Civil Service to buy it back and launch their own be... (More) Doggone

a political fable
by
Erik Ryman

The Government has sold the country to a supermarket on eBay, only for the Civil Service to buy it back and launch their own benign dictatorship. Ten years on, it is all going horribly wrong. There are Hairshirts on every corner, the incompetent Leader and his transvestite first lady pole dance and the dogs are being systematically eradicated to deflect attention from the ruling Department's failure to achieve their promises. "Doggone" is a modern fable, a surreal and bizarre satire on a world of spin, greed, excess and the dangers of letting politicians rule unchecked.
It is also very funny.

ISBN: 978-1906061531
Publisher: bluechrome

Reviews:

"Narrative punctuated by Vonnegut-type apercus 'Doggone' is an inventive satire that Swift, Pope, et al, would have been happy to have put their name to. A future-set retrospective on a 21st century Britain, contemporary bullshit is taken to excess as the entire country is bought by two civil servants with points on a loyalty card. Vignettes of absurdist dialogues - think Pete'n Dud, Bird and Fortune -
detail all too credible nonsense secenarios. And funny, laugh aloud funny. No institution, no region, no nation, no profession, no occupation, (no individual?) is spared at least a scathing aside. Erik himself makes an appearance as a sadistic p.a.: thankfully I don't rate a mention. Unless I'm that 'piece of worthless shit' Smythe. Crazy, funny, and all too plausible; so please don't show Doggone to that arch-creep Gordon Brown: with no ideas of his own he might well use Doggone as a template."
- Sam Smith, Author of 'The End of Science Fiction

"Full of satire, offering no answers but immensely thought-provoking, this book is one of the best I have read in recent years." "I recommend it with enough confidence - it is full of dark humour and not so fluffy dangers, but it is a brilliant and very genuine book to be re-read more than once."
- Ekaterina Rodyunina, The BookBag

"A very enjoyable read"
- Authortrek

"Get in the queue now for this book which is likely to become a cult classic..."
- DJ Kirkby, Literary to Sensory

"The style reminds me most of Irvine Walsh at his most intense."
- Marc Horne, Author of Tokyo Zero

"the political satire and metaphorical nature of this dystopian novel are only two aspects of a greater whole. To carry it off fully one needs wit, guile and skill. And it has to be said, it really is funny (darkly). The dialogue is snappy. The characters may be drawn from a lunatic mind or absurdist figures from film or books. Mel Brooks would make an excellent Leader, for instance. Yes, it is bizarre (think Spike Milligan in Q), and in places deliberately absurd...but the ancient philosophers used a process of argument to make a point, called eductio ad absurdum...and Ryman deploys it very well here. As a dog who loves and is loved daily, Doggone was at times hard to swallow, but any human reader lucky enough to read this novel will not be disappointed. All they should realise is that the author has an ironic tongue firmly planted in his cheek, which is always far more preferable than having it planted in someone else's."
- Tom, Andrew McGuinness' - the author of A Portrait of an Arsonist as a Young Man - Dog

"Rather powerful writer, this guy, Erik Ryman"
- An Obsidian Blade (Less)

Category:	Uncategorized.
Rating:	(14 Ratings)
Upload Date:	02/20/2009
Copyright:	Attribution Non-commercial
Tags:	political Fiction humour fable erik ryman bluechrome political Fiction humour fable erik ryman bluechrome (fewer)

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