The Good, the Bad and the Little Bit Stupid

by Marina Lewycka

The bestselling author of A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian is in top form tackling money laundering and the state of Britain today in this vibrant, laugh-out-loud novel

George Pantis is in a pickle.

After walking out on his wife Rosie on Referendum night 2016 to shack up with hairdresser 'Brexit Brenda' next door, he thinks he's got it made -- especially when he wins millions on a Kosovan lottery he only vaguely remembers entering.

Unfortunately, he's forgotten his password and can't get at his money. Which is a problem because he suddenly has to contend with lots of forceful new friends desperate to know his mother's maiden name.

As things quickly get out of hand, George must make a mad dash from Sheffield to the Adriatic -- and into the arms of organized crime gangs who specialize in illegal kidney transplants and heroin smuggling.

George is in need of rescue -- both from this pickle and from himself.
But will his son Sensible Sid, Brenda and Rosie put aside their differences long enough to help?
And might the journey bring this dysfunctional family back together?

Genres: Fiction, Audiobook, British Literature, Humor

272 pages, Hardcover

Published March 5, 2020

About the author

Marina Lewycka is a British novelist of Ukrainian origin, currently living in Sheffield, England.

Lewycka was born in a refugee camp in Kiel, Germany after World War II. Her family then moved to England where she now lives. She was educated at Keele University and works as a lecturer in media studies at Sheffield Hallam University.

In addition to her fiction, Lewycka has written a number of books giving practical advice for carers of elderly people, published by the charity Age Concern.

Reviews

[Sid Nuncius · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was very disappointed in The Good, The Bad And The Little Bit Stupid. I thought Marina Lewycka’s last book, The Lubetkin Legacy was excellent – witty, sharply observed and penetrating in its analysis. This is nothing like as good.

The story is set in immediate post-referendum Yorkshire where the Pantis family have been riven by Brexit arguments and where fraud of all kinds is evident. This includes fake insurance claims, dodgy “lottery wins”, claims made in the referendum campaign and so on, as the ageing Pantis parents split up and their children, especially Sensible Sid, try to cope with the changes in their lives. I’m afraid I found it thoroughly unconvincing and just plain dull much of the time. Lewycka can still come out with a ringing phrase, like one character describing another as “that useless leeching lump of self-regard,” but in spite of good prose I found the characters pretty thin caricatures and the whole thing felt rather familiar and as though I’d read about it before. There are some farcical “comic” scenes which were plain silly rather than comic, and so on. I’m afraid I just gave up around half way, which is unusual for me, but I just didn’t care any more.

I’m sorry to be critical of an author whose work I have enjoyed in the past, but this one really didn’t do it for me.

(My thanks to Penguin Books for an ARC via NetGalley.)

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book started off good but sadly the plot faded as it got going with wooden characters. Sad as some of the authors other books are good. This one doesn't quite pull it off though.

[Maxi Perten · Rating 1 out of 5]

George Pantis - a proud Brexiteer that can't wait to 'have his country back' gets locked out by his pro-European wife Rosie on the night of the referendum, which causes him to walk over to their neighbour Brexit-Brenda and start an affair with her. A few days later he wins millions on a Kosovan lottery he only vaguely remembers entering - it seems like this is his lucky year!

What a lovely start to a novel!

As a European living in the UK - and as someone who loved Marina Lewycka's novels Two Caravans and We are All Made of Glue - I was curious about this novel and could not wait to check it out.

I have to admit though, that it was a massive disappointment for me.

The characters are caricatures of themselves (I will admit though that they get more endearing as the book goes on), the dialogues seem to be taken directly from a tabloid magazine and the plot is just getting more and more ridiculous and unbelievable as the book goes on.

I am aware that all of my above statement do not necessarily make a bad novel, but I just did not get into the story at all - and maybe it is just not my sense of humour.

I would recommend this to anyone who likes an easy and entertaining beach read and cannot stress enough how much I would recommend We are All Made of Glue to everyone :)

[Katie.dorny · Rating 2 out of 5]

A funny novel that became chaotic then purely unbelievable.

As Brexit rips apart a family, George the Randy pensioner discovers he is the winner of the Kosovan lottery. Or is he?

Add in Brexit Brenda his new paramour; illegal gangs and a bit of organ harvesting - and you have a idea of whatever this book was.

Whilst some parts were funny; others were akin to a self righteous lecture with plot lines being blown way too far out of proportion.

Okay but not close to good.

[Kath · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really wanted to love this book and it started off quite well as most of the humour was on my wavelength. But then, as the story went on (meandering around rather than really getting anywhere) the disjointed nature of reminiscences slapped in the middle of scenes started to really jar on me and the book lost its flow for me somewhat in the early stages. I carried on as I really wanted to see if we eventually got there and was rewarded with some cracking one liners, social & political observations, and scenes that really made me laugh out loud. Sadly these were interspersed with more banal and a bit cringeworthy humour and some of the well set up scenes degenerated too far into the realms of farce. I'm a big fan of Bonkers as a genre but even I have my limits.
All that said, I did like Sid (or Poseidon as he was christened) as he was pretty much the straight man to the comedy that was going on around him.
All in all, sorry but I think this really wasn't the book for me... My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

[Jo-anne Atkinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

George Pantis voted to leave Brexit and he split with his wife over it. Now in a relationship with Brenda, the forceful woman next door, George is beginning to regret things. When he apparently wins a fortune on a Kosovan lottery he barely remembers entering he suddenly finds that he is getting lots of mail and telephone calls. Sensible SID, his son, tells him it is a scam and not to divulge his password to anyone, that's fine because George can't remember it himself.
Lewycka is one of my favourite writers but I have to be in the right mood to read her and I expect that is the same for many potential readers. Lewycka's books are madcap romps with wildly exaggerated characters and a wicked sense of humour. Here a complex slapstick plot involving money laundering, eastern european mafia etc is set in Sheffield and pulls in lots of references to Brexit. If one allows oneself to go with the flow it is just a hilarious tale!

[Kirsty · Rating 2 out of 5]

Until she published The Lubetkin Legacy, I used to really enjoy Lewycka's writing. I thought I'd give her another chance by listening to this, as it was available via my library's audiobook selection, but it's really very silly. The humour is forced, the characters quite stereotypical, and the plot becomes unbelievable as the book goes on.

[Kasia Davies · Rating 1 out of 5]

Shockingly disappointing read. The characters are one dimensional, plot unbelievable and the whole thing naive. Even more of a let down as I do like the author's other books, especially "We are all made of glue".

[Cleo · Rating 1 out of 5]

262 pages of "Remoaner" cringe. This book was all neuroses, no heart (very unlike Lewycka's other writings, of which i am a big fan). Also, why write Cassie into the book if you're then going to do nothing with her character.

[James · Rating 1 out of 5]

A better title would have been the bad and the very stupid. I was left trying to ascribe some kind of brexit symbolism. I have enjoyed other books by this author and I think farce really is not my genre.

[Christine Dobson · Rating 1 out of 5]

An attempt at farcical humour based on some rather disturbing issues?

[Lesley Halliday · Rating 3 out of 5]

A daft wee story that started out really funny, but lost the run of itself. Possibly would have been better as a short story. Enjoyable but pointless

[Abbie · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was odd and random but entertaining. It’s about this old guy getting his bank account hacked so it made me change all my passwords cause made me scared of getting hacked.

[Deborah Mann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not a laugh out loud read like short history of tractors in Ukraine but a gentler more socially observed humour. The backdrop is the chasm opened up by brexit and the changing demographic and history of national identity. The observation of human nature is so nuanced she is so good at representing the voice of the common man or woman in all their shapes and forms. A good read very enjoyable.

[Maxine · Rating 2 out of 5]

5/10
Book club

[Daren Kearl · Rating 4 out of 5]

A novel about Brexit written by an author of European origins was always going to be of interest. Of course, even by the title, you know what side of the fence Marina Lewycka sits on.

It was an easy read with a lot of caricature-based humour which verges on seaside postcard at times, so it was a surprise that there was subtlety and an attempt to understand all sides of the argument within the story.
Following the referendum husband and wife, Rosie and George, fall out due to opposing votes and they separate. George, quoting soundbites from the right-wing media and on the rebound, takes up with UKIP supporter Brenda, whose dislike of all things foreign doesn't extend to food or holidays. George's reasons for voting for Brexit differ to Brenda's and he counters some of her more outrageous attitudes and statements culled from Farage. For George it was all about EU rules and taking back control, for Brenda it was about immigration. There is a farcical tale of money-laundering and kidney black market operations in Albania, but this is just the backdrop to the interactions between these characters and whether there can be any reconciliation.

The conclusion is that sometimes "differences can be irreconcilable because the differences are not about the facts. It's because they are different people with different upbringings, different experiences, different outlooks on life and different ideas of what is right and wrong. No amount of information, true of false, is going to alter that."
Hope is expressed that future generations, who were not involved, will come together and heal any rifts.

[Maddy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Maybe 1 star is harsh but it means "I did not like this" and god help me, I did not like this. I didn't dislike it from the start. I was in it, taking on the tone and the stylised characters and seeing where the plot would go. The humour wasn't immediately stale, but it quickly felt like the kind of comedian Netflix special I would roll my eyes at and stop watching. Lingering on the same material without much wit to add to subjects that are already pretty overdone. In the stand-up world, that is. That was just an analogy and I haven't read another book in a similar setting. Still, it felt kind of heavy-handed in the points it was making, but maybe that was the point? Maybe it was mocking across the board and not making any points? I felt like it was going for what The Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared nailed: wacky twisty plot that goes absurd, gets into territory that could be dark in different prose but is told in a way where it always remains light and funny. Like a vaguely vintage comic-strip fairytale with drugs and gangs and the elderly/ middle aged simultaneously in out of their depth and with a shocking amount of agency. The gentle silly charm that carried the Jonas Jonasson book, though, was just missing here for me. The characters got frustrating and repetitive. The plot got wilder but I felt less and less interested. I have to give it 1 star because I had to really push myself to finish this. It's, what, 260 pages? Well under 300 pages and it felt like an absolute slog near the end. And I wasn't glad to have finished it, either, like the ending redeemed it and justified what made me complain in the middle. Nope.

[Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was disappointed in this book. It seemed that Lewycka couldn't decide between writing about family conflicts or writing a farce so the resulting novel seemed to me to be a rather clumsy mix of the two.
I found the deliberate mistake of pronouncing the characters' surname Pantis as "Panties" really irritating rather than amusing and thought the entire farce section of the novel set abroad was poorly written.
There were some interesting sections and I did like the Sheffield setting which is why I gave it 3 stars rather than just 2. I wonder though, if Lewycka is resting on her reputation.Maybe she took too long to finish the book, because the theme of conflict within a relationship due to differences in attitudes to Brexit is no longer topical. This book is, to an extent, a rehash of a story she has used before. I'm pleased that I borrowed it from the library rather than buying a copy.

[Janet · Rating 2 out of 5]

George Pantis believes he has won the Kosovan lottery but it appears that everyone is trying to access his bank account. George's life is confused and he seems to be going through a mid-life crisis at the age of 79. His wife Rosie, his new love Brenda and his son Sid are all trying to rescue him from the mess he has got himself in.
If you are looking for a mildly entertaining, very light read then maybe this is a book for you. It is a quick read. Unfortunately, that's the best I can say about it. I'd like to be more positive but there's nothing else I can say.
It is a far fetched story that is slow to develop. The characters are two dimensional and difficult to relate to. The story lacks substance and descends into ridicule. Sadly, I won't be recommending this book.
I received a free review copy of the book from the publisher in exchange for my honest and unedited review.

[Milas_Book_Reviews · Rating 1 out of 5]

Please click here if you would like to watch my full review or look up Mila's Book Reviews on youtube - https://youtu.be/3wLuZ8LHYoQ

I had really high hopes from reading the blurb of this book. A 79 year old man who wins a huge sum of money on a Kosovan lottery that he doesn’t remember entering and refuses to believe it could be a scam. He also leaves his wife for the next door neighbour. The family need to band together to help him out and get him out of the pickles he continuously gets himself into.

I felt like that this was written to be similar to ‘The 100 Year Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared’ but done very badly. The book also just felt like a way for Lewycka to voice her opinions about Brexit.

[Jane Blake · Rating 1 out of 5]

Didn’t really enjoy this one and was pleased when I got to the end

[Tara Lewis · Rating 3 out of 5]

This had a raring good start but became more and more ridiculous, and not necessarily in a good way. Satire is great but it got silly and the ending wasn't great.

[David Harris · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm grateful to the publisher for an advance e-copy of The Good, the Bad, and the Little Bit Stupid via NetGalley.

Unusually, Lewycka opens this book with a couple of pages setting the scene and - apparently - telling us how to approach the characters.There are George and Rosie Pantis. George, aged 79 and retired as a philosophy lecturer to write poetry (no poetry occurs). Rosie, twenty years younger and still working as a teacher to support him. Poseidon (Sid) and Cassiopeia (Cassie), their children. Sid's partner, Jacquie, pregnant and very patient with Rosie's grumbles about George. Brenda, with whom George is now living. The intro swiftly sums up the background - George's defection on that fateful night in June 2016, first to Leave in the Referendum and then to Brenda, the looming threat of financial fraud and the assurance that this isn't a book where good and bad get their just desserts and that there aren't actually any good guys here, just people with mixed up motives and different sides to them.

While useful in orienting us to the characters and where they are, I found this synopsis a little surprising and part of me, throughout the book, was ruminating on it, trying to see whether I agreed or not. Was it meant to be taken seriously? Was it a bit of sly misdirection? I'm still not sure whether that was the intended effect although I have to say it probably made me pay closer attention and that can't be a bad thing.

Indeed, close attention is merited because in discussing Rosie, George, Brenda and the rest, Lewycka is - overtly - dissecting the Brexity turmoil of the past three years in Britain. One can almost assign roles. Brenda is Leave - strident, proudly non PC. Rosie is Remain - disappointed, puzzled and, increasingly, angry. George is perhaps Everyman - tilting Leave at the last minute but for reasons that depart from the official script. And Sid, Jacquie and Cassie are, Sid muses, those who will have to put things back together in the future years and decades.

On this reading, though, Lewycka isn't even-handed but makes it clear she thinks George is a fool. The overt plot in this book focuses on a complicated piece of identity theft which draws him in. It's a far from obvious scam which involves several different factions and has some genuinely funny moments, but despite this it's clear there is something fishy going on. It is hard not to join the dots to interpret George's Leave vote as a the result of another complex scam (aided perhaps by the book's title) so - despite that intro - I think we know where we are in terms of Brexit Britain.

All that said, there is a great deal more to this book, a lot of gentle comedy laced with misunderstandings (all round), jealousy (between Brenda and Rosie) and incompetence (the scamming crooks who are onto George). And I think Lewycka does well giving voice to the sense of hurt that many of us have ('It's the closeness of the result, it's the feeling of being cheated, it's the sense that the other side it being wilfully stupid and just doesn't understand the issue...')

It has heart, too, as Sid ponders his future relationship with Jacquie and their child. I found this very moving - Sid and Jacquie are well drawn characters, Sid, a maths lecturer, with 'Noether's theorem in his mind' (Emmy Noether deserves wider recognition!), Jacquie who is 'such a sympathetic listener that Rosie prefers talking to her, rather than to Sid...' They would, perhaps, be easy to overlook give all the hullabaloo from the others. And after a lot of setup in the opening three quarters, the book shifts up a few gears and gives us quite a different ending from what we might expect. In doing that, things suddenly move very fast, with the book covering - literally a great deal of ground in relatively few pages. I'd have welcomed more time, and detail, in this section.

There is some great, sly writing hereg: a song sung, with variations, by, among other groups 'Angela and the Muttis' and 'The Blue-Eyed Barnier Boy', the description of a certain politician: 'He's a dangerous demagogue, with his populist posturing and and mendacious mouth grinning open like a frog waiting too catch some innocent fly with his fast flicking tongue.' (Who COULD it be?). 'What is national identity', we are asked rhetorically, 'but victimhood with boots on?' More earthily - here is a kiss: 'Her lips taste of secrecy and forest chestnuts...'

As much a commentary on contemporary Britain - well, England - as Lewycka's previous books, this is a thoroughly good read. Perhaps the intro reflects the impossibility of trying to exist - to live or two write - in our current climate without taking a position while at the same time being told to get over it, move forward, unify, something which seems impossible and has to be cast forward to future generations.

[Smitchy · Rating 2 out of 5]

George Pantis is a babyboomer, brexit fan, and wannabe Don Jaun. His wife Rosie loves George, but is not a fan of Brexit and an argument on election night leaves George out in the rain and he turns to their neighbour, Brenda, for sympathy and a bit more. Rosie is certain he is just having a final, slightly older than mid-life crisis, and will come back to her eventually. However, just as George is realising that life may not be greener on the other side of the fence a mysterious phone call informs George that he has won the Kosovan State Lottery. All he has to do is hand over his bank account number. In spite of everyone in his life informing him that this is without doubt some form of scam George hands over the codes and password and is smugly happy that everyone is proved wrong when the promised money turns up in his account. Heeding one piece of advice from his son he immediately changes his password, and that is when the games begin. International crime, a dysfunctional family, bank fraud and brexit combine into a black comedy.

This started strong and the black comedy was entertaining at first but it quickly just became too farcical for my tastes. Perhaps the humour will be more entertaining to someone living in Europe or the UK (there many things said about Brexit and the UK / EU relationship).
At first George's complete lack of any tech savvy was entertaining and as a child of babyboomers who frequently run into online issues I sympathised with Sid, George's long suffering son, but as the story went on George's wilful disregard of every overt warning just annoyed me. The odd relationships between Rosie, Brenda, and George are also entertaining but after following George for some time I found it harder and harder to believe that anyone would be keen to have him back.

Partly my dislike for this book is due to the utter idiocy of the characters (cough-George-cough), which I'm sure is a deliberate choice by the author. Why, I do not understand but I'm sure there is a reason. Personally, I have to like the characters to enjoy the story, and after way too many really daft choices I just couldn't. Maybe you have to be living in Brexit Britain?

This was the first Marina Lewycka book I have read but was excited about it I have heard great things about her book "A Short History of Tractors in Ukranian". Maybe I should have read that one instead?

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Here is another satirical comedy by the author of the (as yet) unsurpassed A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian. It’s the story of George Pantis and his tribe. George thinks he’s won a billion Lek in the Kosovan State Lottery but of course it all turns out to be a scam. The story is set in Sheffield and Albania, against a background of the year of the Brexit Referendum (2016).

As befits this fateful plebiscite, the consequences of which have been an unmitigated disaster for Great Britain in my humble opinion, marred as it was by much deliberate disinformation and (I’m tempted to say ‘hilarious’ if it wasn’t so serious and sad) misunderstandings, this book deals with many scourges of our times: digital financial crime (‘inadvertently’ aided and abetted by ‘reputable’ financial institutions), human trafficking to supply the ‘sex industry’, illicit ‘trading’ in human organs for transplants, etc., etc. (oh I nearly forgot the idiocy that is ‘carbon credits’!). “The mendacity that characterises modern life” to use Rosie Pantis’s words…

Many of the comedic moments revolve around my generation’s inability to come to grips with the changes in this, the ‘digital age’ - e.g. the necessity to remember a thousand passwords but not being allowed to write them down! George’s wife Rosie was born in the same year as myself but you’ll have to read this book to find out when that was!

Verdict: very entertaining yet also serious, in the venerable tradition of true comedy. The book falters towards the end and the French-Farce-like Albanian scamper is slightly overdone, as are some of the characters (e.g. the caricature-like Scot ‘Angus Aberdeen’!). Also I thought the book was a bit too long for what it actually has to say. A very good effort nevertheless, by one of my favourite British satirical authors, of which there are a great many!

[Juliana · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of the lowest averages I've seen on Goodreads, so I went in expecting to be bitterly disappointed (I bought a physical copy of this book in a German bookshop for nearly 15€!), but I was pleasantly surprised.

I must say I didn't overly enjoy the heterogeneity in tone between the first and second part of the book. We were following a slightly comedic family drama and then suddenly we were traipsing around a deserted island with guns and shootouts and kidney thieves. It felt slightly disconnected.

That being said, I enjoyed the writing and the theme of the book. None of the characters were likable, but I don't think they were meant to be. At times they reacted in ways that didn't feel real (going from 0 to 100 in the middle of peaceful conversations, shattering mugs on people's cabinets then continuing on as if nothing had happened) or were completely detached from reality (80 year old grandpa thinks that the young Barbie is in love with him, and how could she possibly not be?), but they were entertaining enough even if they were impossible to connect with.

As someone who moved to the UK in September 2016, this books serves a reminder of how happy I am that I got out of there. Overall, a quick read with a nice style but lacking in plot and with terrible characters (which I believe was done on purpose).

[Lucy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve seen this described as ‘laugh out loud’, I found it quietly but inescapably amusing.

We follow the story of George, about to hit his 80th birthday, and the chaos his life descends into when he becomes the naïve victim of a money laundering scam… Convinced he’s won the Kosovan lottery, and with £7m in his bank account, George is now parted from his wife, shacked up with the next door neighbour, and suddenly on his way to Eastern Europe beside a very glamourous young lady.

Completely absurd and ridiculous, with all the chaos stacked up in a short timeline, this is amusing and droll. A fun cast of characters – George himself, Rosie his lovable but barking wife, Brenda ‘the Bitch’ from next door, Sid and Cassie – George’s children, and a supporting cast of Eastern Europeans with a wealth of changing identities. Add in some boats, trains, storms, guns, the black market in human kidneys, and Brexit and that’s a whole lot of amusement. I would love to see this on television.

[Marles Henry · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sometimes the title of the book says it all, and with this book there was no exception. 'The good, the bad and the little bit stupid' sounded fun, quirky, a little out there. The good: the unpacking of relationships and characters such as Sid and Rosie who were actually quite delightful and lovely. The bad: to me it was Brenda, and some of the plotlines that did not seem to be very strong and in need of more detail. The little bit stupid: to be honest, the story in its entirety really seemed a little bit ridiculous, but not in a funny sort of way. George's absolute stupidity in placing the lives of Rosie and Brenda at risk is a great example of this. Yes this was a light hearted book but I think that the seriousness of this part of the book was watered down a little too much, even for a quirky book. It wasn't my cup of tea, but maybe something you enjoy if are a fan of Marina Lewycka's other books.

[Steven Feldman · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Good, the Bad and the Little Bit Stupid is the second novel by Marina Lewycka. If you have read and enjoyed A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian you are going to love this.

George is approaching his 80th birthday, he has left his wife Rosie after an argument over Brexit on referendum night and is living with their next door neighbour Brenda. He seems to have won the jackpot on the Kosovan lottery but he isn’t sure that he entered the lottery and he can’t remember the password to his bank account to access the money. What follows is hysterical chaos as different money laundering gangs are desperately trying to gain access to George’s bank account and Rosie and Brenda are battling over George’s wandering affections.

This is charming, funny and well observed. Highly recommended

[Airi Forssell · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was disappointed. This is my first Lewycka, but my expectations were high, since I'd seen how much attention her "tractor history" book had accumulated and how it was on sale, and posing on the top ten shelves, everywhere you looked. The narration is enjoyable, and I rather like how the relations between protagonists are described and how they evolve. What I did not buy were all the details that just didn't ring true: probability of post-menopausal pregnancy, unbelievably poor bank security in UK in 2020, the whole business with the gangsters in a far away land... Trying to avoid spoilers here. This attempts to be a real life fiction with elements of adventure and crazyness, yet it feels somehow out of date.