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Recycling Jimmy
After a bungled, hilarious suicide attempt and a subsequent hospital stay, Jimmy’s life is set on a course he could never have imagined with his new best pal, fellow resident, and practical joker Kevin. Together the two form a business to assist the suicidal who, like Jimmy, couldn’t quite pull off dying the first time, with the added wrinkle of filming and distributing each case for profit. After a terrible practical joke gone wrong, Jimmy resolves to put what he has learned about human suffering to better use by helping, rather than exploiting, those desperate souls who want to end their lives. An outrageous romp through the darkest aspects of human nature, this compelling novel is told with brilliant black humor and a unique zest for life.
256 pages, Hardcover
First published September 1, 2007
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
October 15, 2007
P.G. Wodehouse Meets Monty Python
To say the least, in Andy Tilley's brash novel "Recycling Jimmy", antihero Jimmy's judgment is suspect. He's foolish, irreverent, and passive; just what you'd expect from a bloke whose emotional development got euthanized sometime during his teens. In the opening scene Jimmy dangles from a bridge, eighty feet above ground. Even then, he's hard pressed to do anything, anything at all, right. Still, somehow, he's just likeable enough and the situation just foolish enough, we begin to have our hopes...
Whatever the roots of author Tilley's eccentric humor, he delivers the goods with elan despite a narrative laden with passive form. It works, but repetition of some verb forms might irritate some readers. Fortunately, in the opening he's just getting his dark funnybone warm and before long at all prose issues recede. It's while in hospital after the bungled suicide attempt, after Jimmy encounters kindred spirit Kevin, that the full effect of the author's special form of humor comes to bear. Suffice it to say, in Recycling Jimmy, the unusual is commonplace, the incredible comfy as an afternoon pint at the local pub, and the unthinkable...why of course, the unthinkable is central to the plot.
Will Jimmy change his ways? Will he learn how to take responsibility for his acts? I'm not tipping over the crumpets. You'll have to read to find out. Warning: the laughs get you by surprise. If no one in the family is trained in the Heimlich Maneuver, don't get caught with a mouthful of chips.
Art Tirrell is the author of the 2007 adventure novel, "The Secret Ever Keeps", of which reviewer Joan A. said, "The first book...my significant other...and I have agreed on since 'Kafka on the Beach'." See all the reviews on Amazon at /product/1601640048
To say the least, in Andy Tilley's brash novel "Recycling Jimmy", antihero Jimmy's judgment is suspect. He's foolish, irreverent, and passive; just what you'd expect from a bloke whose emotional development got euthanized sometime during his teens. In the opening scene Jimmy dangles from a bridge, eighty feet above ground. Even then, he's hard pressed to do anything, anything at all, right. Still, somehow, he's just likeable enough and the situation just foolish enough, we begin to have our hopes...
Whatever the roots of author Tilley's eccentric humor, he delivers the goods with elan despite a narrative laden with passive form. It works, but repetition of some verb forms might irritate some readers. Fortunately, in the opening he's just getting his dark funnybone warm and before long at all prose issues recede. It's while in hospital after the bungled suicide attempt, after Jimmy encounters kindred spirit Kevin, that the full effect of the author's special form of humor comes to bear. Suffice it to say, in Recycling Jimmy, the unusual is commonplace, the incredible comfy as an afternoon pint at the local pub, and the unthinkable...why of course, the unthinkable is central to the plot.
Will Jimmy change his ways? Will he learn how to take responsibility for his acts? I'm not tipping over the crumpets. You'll have to read to find out. Warning: the laughs get you by surprise. If no one in the family is trained in the Heimlich Maneuver, don't get caught with a mouthful of chips.
Art Tirrell is the author of the 2007 adventure novel, "The Secret Ever Keeps", of which reviewer Joan A. said, "The first book...my significant other...and I have agreed on since 'Kafka on the Beach'." See all the reviews on Amazon at /product/1601640048
June 19, 2015
How can you go wrong with a cover image of a British flag pained on the toes of a body with a toe tag? Well, you can’t! The summary above doesn’t do the book justice. This is a well written story just steeped in black comedy. It begins with his failed (and ill-conceived) suicide attempt after his fiancee leaves main character Jimmy for his best friend. Jimmy ends up in the hospital where practical joker Kevin works. They become roommates and best friends and their primary daily goals seem to be screwing with each others.
One night while they are drunk, Jimmy comes up with the idea of starting a business to help people commit suicide. They will help plan and then film the deaths, eventually compiling everything into a DVD to be sold on Ebay. They decide to offer each participant $1000 for a “Wish Day” that would also be filmed. They get through two complete suicides before things go wrong.
This is a fun read. The book treats a serious topics with irreverence. I found it funny, but some may not. The author is British and there is a lot of British slang used in the book. Because I find myself reading many British authors, I have figured out what a lot of the slang means but there were just somethings I couldn’t figure out. That didn’t take away too much from the book, but some people might find this distracting.
Obviously I recommend this book, especially if you like your humor dark. I’ll be the first to admit there is something about modern British authors—or maybe it’s just modern British sensibility—that makes the absurd just so much fun!
One night while they are drunk, Jimmy comes up with the idea of starting a business to help people commit suicide. They will help plan and then film the deaths, eventually compiling everything into a DVD to be sold on Ebay. They decide to offer each participant $1000 for a “Wish Day” that would also be filmed. They get through two complete suicides before things go wrong.
This is a fun read. The book treats a serious topics with irreverence. I found it funny, but some may not. The author is British and there is a lot of British slang used in the book. Because I find myself reading many British authors, I have figured out what a lot of the slang means but there were just somethings I couldn’t figure out. That didn’t take away too much from the book, but some people might find this distracting.
Obviously I recommend this book, especially if you like your humor dark. I’ll be the first to admit there is something about modern British authors—or maybe it’s just modern British sensibility—that makes the absurd just so much fun!
May 19, 2012
This book was very entertaining. At first it took me a while to get into it, as I knew the rough outline of the plot and wasn't sure how it could make for a good read.
I liked the characters and how honest the descriptions of them seemed - even little details were included about them which made them seem more real. As for the storyline, well it was a very strange idea and a bit morbid if you put a lot of thought into it; I think this book is meant to be taken lightly yet still have enough of a meaning behind it to not be classed as careless.
I liked the characters and how honest the descriptions of them seemed - even little details were included about them which made them seem more real. As for the storyline, well it was a very strange idea and a bit morbid if you put a lot of thought into it; I think this book is meant to be taken lightly yet still have enough of a meaning behind it to not be classed as careless.
December 14, 2010
Funny and off-beat novel that kept my attention throughout. You wouldn't think a novel that revolves around people's suicides could be funny, but it is. The best friends, Jimmy and Kevin, are the kind of friends that define best mates. There's is a business plan that is as unique as it is brilliant. The tit for tat practical jokes between these two guys is wonderful. The prose and pace of the novel are superb, yet American readers may struggle a bit with the liberal use of British slang.
May 22, 2012
A very strange idea for a story, to start with I wasn't sure that I was going to like this book but something just made me want to keep reading a bit more and a bit more !
The characters were very down to earth and real like. It had some quite gory parts so not one for the faint hearted.
August 22, 2008
I liked this book. A bit different than what I usually read. A bit of Dark Humor. Written by an English author and I love to read English language and slang. The book is about a Bloke who gets an idea to video-tape sucides to put together a DVD.
June 30, 2010
Eh. A la Shaun of the Dead but less consistent and believable.
September 2, 2016
Original, laugh out loud funny, and sweet in a twisted kind of way.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews