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Too Beautiful for You: Tales of Improper Behavior
An ambitious fiction debut filled with lust, longing, and moral depravity.
The tales in Too Beautiful for You , Rod Liddle’s dazzling debut, sweep readers into the lives of characters whose sexual frustrations and deviant desires lead them to the very edge of acceptable behavior—and sometimes way beyond.
In a mischievous, macabre tale about a man who loses his arm in an accident on the way back from an assignation, Liddle shows just how far a husband will go to hide his infidelity from his wife. Another philandering husband, operating much closer to home, doesn’t let fleeting pangs of guilt curtail his hunger for the sexual treats proffered by his mother-in-law. Bizarre happenings are not confined to the sexually one woman notices that her skin is hardening into a sort of insect carapace after she uses a depilatory gel; a suicide bomber is forced to acknowledge his abysmal failure as a terrorist when he tries to blow up a Jewish art gallery with a package of trout; and a man planning to jump out a window finds some of his colleagues all too ready to assist him.
Liddle presents his panoply of misfits and miscreants without passing judgment. The passions they harbor and the acts they commit may be shocking and scandalous, but Liddle shows that these hapless men and women are not so very different from the rest of us. Sharp-witted, sexy, and psychologically astute, Too Beautiful for You breaks through literary and social taboos with style and humor, reminiscent of the early work of Martin Amis.
The tales in Too Beautiful for You , Rod Liddle’s dazzling debut, sweep readers into the lives of characters whose sexual frustrations and deviant desires lead them to the very edge of acceptable behavior—and sometimes way beyond.
In a mischievous, macabre tale about a man who loses his arm in an accident on the way back from an assignation, Liddle shows just how far a husband will go to hide his infidelity from his wife. Another philandering husband, operating much closer to home, doesn’t let fleeting pangs of guilt curtail his hunger for the sexual treats proffered by his mother-in-law. Bizarre happenings are not confined to the sexually one woman notices that her skin is hardening into a sort of insect carapace after she uses a depilatory gel; a suicide bomber is forced to acknowledge his abysmal failure as a terrorist when he tries to blow up a Jewish art gallery with a package of trout; and a man planning to jump out a window finds some of his colleagues all too ready to assist him.
Liddle presents his panoply of misfits and miscreants without passing judgment. The passions they harbor and the acts they commit may be shocking and scandalous, but Liddle shows that these hapless men and women are not so very different from the rest of us. Sharp-witted, sexy, and psychologically astute, Too Beautiful for You breaks through literary and social taboos with style and humor, reminiscent of the early work of Martin Amis.
- GenresShort StoriesFiction
240 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2003
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
October 12, 2026
The recently departed journalist had apparently stated that he wishes he had been a writer of fiction. This is his one collection of short stories.
Said by some to be in the style of Michel Houellebecq, there is a similar cynicism in their view of modern society and interpersonal relations. From Marmite-secreting partners to husbands who would rather lose life and limb than get caught cheating, to the life of a fly and an unsuccessful Islamic terrorist, it's all here in this sardonic book.
"... amputees really worried Angela. He remembered her once
rushing to the television to change channels simply because some
poor legless chap was being interviewed about land mines. Amputations horrified her.
But, of course, she would not end her relationship with Christian simply because he’d been unfortunate enough to lose his arm.
She would need an excuse to do so. And his infidelity provided the
perfect excuse."
" Dissolution is not something we’re
equipped to battle against: it happens and we succumb. You,
meanwhile, battle—and succumb all the same, that extravagant
expenditure of energy like the thinnest of vapour trails across an
evening sky, clear and sharp before blurring almost imperceptibly
into nothing at all."
Said by some to be in the style of Michel Houellebecq, there is a similar cynicism in their view of modern society and interpersonal relations. From Marmite-secreting partners to husbands who would rather lose life and limb than get caught cheating, to the life of a fly and an unsuccessful Islamic terrorist, it's all here in this sardonic book.
"... amputees really worried Angela. He remembered her once
rushing to the television to change channels simply because some
poor legless chap was being interviewed about land mines. Amputations horrified her.
But, of course, she would not end her relationship with Christian simply because he’d been unfortunate enough to lose his arm.
She would need an excuse to do so. And his infidelity provided the
perfect excuse."
" Dissolution is not something we’re
equipped to battle against: it happens and we succumb. You,
meanwhile, battle—and succumb all the same, that extravagant
expenditure of energy like the thinnest of vapour trails across an
evening sky, clear and sharp before blurring almost imperceptibly
into nothing at all."
April 7, 2016
Cannot believe I once read a book by this awful prick.
May 19, 2007
it's not a novel. it's a collection of stories. as i recall, the first few are good and then they start to suck. i don't know why it says novel above.
February 28, 2014
Not that great of a book. A couple of the stories in this book were good, but overall I really wasn't interested in it.
January 10, 2008
Rod Liddle, Too Beautiful for You: Tales of Improper Behavior (Doubleday, 2003)
Twelve generally interrelated tales of everything from Keystone Kops-style slapstick to almost Kafkaesque magic realism. The majority focus on some sort of sexual misconduct or other (the major exception, oddly, being the book's first tale, which is nothing more than a shaggy dog joke that is, to be fair, exceptionally well set up). Liddle has good comic timing and knows how to pull an idea out to its logically absurd conclusion (the book's best story, “The Long, Long Road to Uttoxeter”, is a perfect example of this, with a man trying frantically to come up with an excuse for an infidelitous jaunt when he becomes involved in a nasty rail accident and loses his right arm on the way home). There did seem to be a few times when an editor might have been able to snap stories into better shape, but what's here is certainly worth reading if you like your humor with a dash of the perverse and a jaundiced eye towards twentysomethings. *** ½
Twelve generally interrelated tales of everything from Keystone Kops-style slapstick to almost Kafkaesque magic realism. The majority focus on some sort of sexual misconduct or other (the major exception, oddly, being the book's first tale, which is nothing more than a shaggy dog joke that is, to be fair, exceptionally well set up). Liddle has good comic timing and knows how to pull an idea out to its logically absurd conclusion (the book's best story, “The Long, Long Road to Uttoxeter”, is a perfect example of this, with a man trying frantically to come up with an excuse for an infidelitous jaunt when he becomes involved in a nasty rail accident and loses his right arm on the way home). There did seem to be a few times when an editor might have been able to snap stories into better shape, but what's here is certainly worth reading if you like your humor with a dash of the perverse and a jaundiced eye towards twentysomethings. *** ½
August 20, 2007
Have a suspicion that Will Self ghostwrote this for his fellow Grumpy Old Man.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews