MAN OVERBORED: A NOVELLA

by Laverty J. Paul

Chronic masturbators, mass adulterers, punk rock clergymen, giant incontinent lobsters, sex workers, terrorists, murderers, child-killers, drunken sailors and a ship which is on the brink of going down with its 3,000 guests completely unawares. A lot of strange things happen on cruises that you don’t hear about in the brochures, but in Man Overbored, buoy oh buoy are you about to. Welcome aboard the QE3 (Queen Elizabeth III), the world’s most luxurious of luxury cruise liners. Setting-sail from Portsmouth to New York, it looks to be another wild acid-ride much like any other, only on this trip a mysterious force is boring a hole through the ship’s core and threatening to tip them all into the unforgiving sea. Inspired by the stylings  of John Kennedy Toole, Irvine Welsh and Hunter S Thompson,  Man Overbored is a novella of strange interlinking stories and even stranger characters bound together by the fact that black, white, gay, straight, rich, poor, smart or dumb, weird or even weirder - they’re all in the same boat, and they’re all about to die.

80 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 29, 2019

Reviews

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really good

Enjoyed this a lot. Colourful characters interesting original ideas. Raced through it. Definitely will look for more of Pauls work

[Dan Kaufman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved reading this funny, quirky, fast-paced novella.

Each chapter covers a different passenger or crew member of a luxury cruise liner that has a mysterious problem involving holes that seem to be appearing throughout the ship. Most of these characters (including a delusional chef, a bitter waiter, and a newly wed couple who have yet to consummate their marriage) notice the holes – and yet seem to be more preoccupied with their own private dramas.

Reading this was a joy: this is pure madcap escapism.