Blast from the Past

by Ben Elton

Ready to follow Nick Hornsby and Helen Fielding as the next big thing from Cool Britannia to hit America is Ben Elton. Already known to a wide public television audience as the funnyman behind Blackadder, The Young Ones, and The Thin Blue Line, Elton, author of Popcorn , lights up the literary sky with Blast from the Past .

Part noir thriller, part hilarious send-up of the politics of extremism, Blast from the Past is the new novel from English comedy phenomenon (stand-up, playwright, television writer, and author) Ben Elton--a name soon to be known in all circles once Joel Schumacher's film of his book Popcorn reaches the silver screen.

In the early '80s, when Polly was a seventeen-year-old ideological peace protestor and Jack was a U.S. Army captain stationed at England's Greenham Common, the two had a secret and very unlikely affair. No two people could have had more to argue about, save that they couldn't live without each other, yet one day Jack came to the conclusion that he loved soldiering more than Polly and sacrificed their love to be a career army man.

Now, sixteen years later, Polly is a lonely thirty-something social services employee and Jack is a four-star general who has returned to Britain to find her, his only true love. With only one night to resolve their differences, and a knife-wielding stalker lurking in the shadows, for everyone concerned this will be a night like no other.


From the Hardcover edition.

Genres: Fiction, Humor, Comedy, Contemporary, Crime, Thriller, British Literature

304 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Ben Elton was born on 3 May 1959, in Catford, South London. The youngest of four, he went to Godalming Grammar School, joined amateur dramatic societies and wrote his first play at 15. He wanted to be a stagehand at the local theatre, but instead did A-Level Theatre Studies and studied drama at Manchester University in 1977.

His career as both performer and writer encompasses some of the most memorable and incisive comedy of the past twenty years. His groundbreaking work as a TV stand-up comedian set the (high) standard of what was to follow. He has received accolades for his hit TV sitcoms, The Young Ones, Blackadder and The Thin Blue Line.

More recently he has had successes with three hit West End musicals, including the global phenomenon We Will Rock You. He has written three plays for the London stage, including the multi-award-winning Popcorn. Ben's international bestselling novels include Stark, Inconceivable, Dead Famous and High Society. He won the Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger Award for the novel Popcorn.

Elton lives in Perth with his Aussie wife Sophie and three children.

Reviews

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jack is a 32-year-old Captain in the US Army based at Greenham Common - following an encounter in a motorway service area, Jack starts a passionate relationship with 17-year-old Polly, a Greenham activist. But eventually Jack has to move on and leaves Polly devastated.
15 years on, Polly has just about recovered from Jack's betrayal. She has a flat and a job.... but she also has a stalker in the form of Pete, who she calls The Bug. Woken by her phone in the early hours of the morning, Polly is stunned to find Jack, now a 4-star General, has returned. But has he come back to reclaim her or not?.....
This was a really enjoyable read, light-hearted and fun but also with an unexpected plot twist towards the end - 9/10.

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

As I mentioned to a friend, I wanted to read this book because I felt I could use a little humour. I picked it up second hand for $3 and apparently got an early edition. The dust cover on the back contained reviews for Elton's previous book Popcorn. Those reviews seemed to imply that Blast from the Past was also a comedy.

There were funny moments, but it certainly wasn't a bag of laughs. Maybe I missed the point, but whoever decided to put reviews from Popcorn that contain lines like "The funniest and most readable novel you're likely to see this year" on the back of Blast from the Past mustn't have read it. Then again I haven't read Popcorn so maybe people really do find this sort of thing hilarious.

The story is about a 17-year-old feminist, war protester (Polly) who during one summer falls in love with a 32-year-old sexist stereotypically-Republican army man (Jack) stationed in England. Jack breaks Polly's heart by abandoning her for his career and 16 years later tracks her down to complete some mysterious mission.

I had no idea what I was getting into, I'll be honest. The end was a pretty big shock given the context in which this novel was presented. And I am honestly dumbfounded. All I can say for certain is that it wasn't funny, it was rather sad and more than a little f'ed up. Had I had a better clue about what kind of story it was I might have felt differently, so I took this into account when I gave it my rating. I did, up to a point, like it. But... yikes.

[Meirav Rath · Rating 5 out of 5]

You need to be in the army and know the type of men who stay there to understand this book and how brilliant it is.
An impossible love affair has left its mark on both the ex-hippy and the army man as their lives crash together again in one final night.
Elton's wit and criticisms describes both the characters and the times through which they lived marvelously, making this book Elton's best.
Highly recommended, it's a great book!

[Glen Engel-Cox · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've long meant to read the novels by Ben Elton, a writer whom I have admired for his movie and television work of comic genius such as Four Weddings and a Funeral, Blackadder, and Love Actually. This is his fourth or fifth novel, and I figured that he must have been able to shift into a new medium with some success, not to mention that I had seen some recommendations for his novels in places that I usually trust.

Unfortunately, this book didn't work for me. I did finish it, but I think that was due in part to my not wanting to start another book so near to my recent vacation and that I was actually reading it quite quickly. The problem here stems from Elton's choice of comedic material: the juxtaposition of an ultra lefty in the person of Polly, who once protested the American presence on British soil by chaining herself along with a group of other female peaceniks to the gates of the military base, and Jack Kent, an ultra righty who was one of those American soldiers, now risen to the rank of General and on the precipice of becoming the next head of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff. Neither Polly or Jack are believeable characters, which usually isn't a problem in a comedy novel, as believability often takes a back seat to exaggeration. But by making them opposite sides of the political coin, some of their aspects are not so much exaggerated as inconsistent, especially in the use Elton puts them into service of the thin plot. They are, instead, means by which Elton proceeds to skewer both political persuasions and this might work if they weren't each so full of straw that his darting arrows not only pierce but proceed to explode the propped up dummies, to extend and exaggerate the metaphor. He also is exceedingly graphic, especially in his portrayal of the physical attraction of these opposites in the backflashes to their initial meeting, which is more squirm-inducing than arousing. As the book works inevitably to the climax, and as Elton has his characters move around to the spots where everything will proceed as he wants, he has to have them repeat themselves to the point of annoyance. Halfway through the book, I debated if you could make a drinking game out of every time Polly demanded that Jack answer why he had returned after 30 years and then revealing that she was still attracted to him. It's the kind of thing that might have worked in a screenplay, because it could have been excised by the director or editor.

Compared to books by other British TV alumni such as Stephen Fry or Hugh Laurie, this was a major disappointment. I'm hoping that this was just an off-book, and that Elton's others are much better. It may be some time for me to try one of those after this book, though.

[Ria · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brilliant novel with such an unexpected twist it was literally impossible to see it coming until the last minute.
Polly works for the council, her life is going nowhere, she is lonely, depressed and a failed freedom fighter against the world's injustices.
Also foremost among her thoughts is the doomed love affair when she was seventeen she had with an American soldier who abruptly left her with no explanation.
Then there is the problem of "the bug" a stalking pest who is obsessed with Polly so all in all things are not going at all well.
Enter again after sixteen years Jack Kent, the affair of her teens and love of her life.
When she lets the answer machine pick up at 2am in the morning assuming it was Peter the bug she listens to the message but is shocked to find the caller is Jack.
But what is he here for after all this time?
What does he want or expect of Polly?
Only by letting him back into her life can she find out but things are not what they seem and the truth is only revealed in an explosive and exciting finale.
This is my first introduction to this author but I was gripped from the first page and will definitely be looking out for more of his work.
A wonderful and entertaining read.

[thebookfox]

DNF’d after listening to 26% of the audiobook.

I’m more than a quarter of the way through and the most interesting part for me is that Polly has a stalker. I honestly couldn’t care less about her relationship with Jack and his sudden return so I went ahead and read up on what happens. Happy with my decision to DNF.

[Dimitri · Rating 2 out of 5]

Might work as a play (set largely in a flat), not so much as a novel....

[Han Preston · Rating 1 out of 5]

What a horrible book.

[Meema · Rating 3 out of 5]

How many times have you wondered what it takes to make a good screenplay off of a book? I bet nearly as many times as you have seen a movie adaptation of a book. This book made me wonder the opposite, namely how to make a book from a screenplay.

This, in summary, is the shortfall of Ben Elton's Blast room the past. It reads exceedingly like a movie and not nearly enough as a book or a novel.

The central idea of the book while interesting is not sufficiently grave to hold one's interest for long enough. Ex lover from US Army shows up at the doorstep of now council worker and lifelong activist Polly. Apart from this dichotomy Elton also draws on the strength of the changing times and attempts to create something of a nostalgic seventies atmosphere and pit it against the current times. Everything takes place in flashbacks and the length of one evening. The only other character in the book is Polly's stalker, embedded I suspect only for the sake of creating dramatic tension.

I greatly enjoy Ben Elton's writing and this will not be the last book I read of him, that is for certain.

Also, this book could make into a neat little movie methinks.

[Hester · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is funny and scary and deeply sad. At its core, it is a love story about how a ruthlessly ambitious army man has a passionate affair with a teenage radical pacifist. The affair changes her enough to the leave the movement and changes him enough to become a little more sensitive. They meet again, decades later, and end up comparing their lives. The question that creates the tension is whether they still love each other and whether they changed each other enough.
SPOILER
Unfortunately, the protagonist discovers she can still care deeply for this man and be repulsed by so much of who he is and what he stands for. The tragedy is that he changed her just enough to be unhappy with her choices and she changed him just enough that he needs to eradicate their past.
Thank goodness she finds someone who can reconcile her with her past.

[Tasula · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would have enjoyed this book more if not for the characters. Neither army career obsessed Jack nor protest obsessed Polly were very likeable, and their ideological arguments (both in the past when Jack was a US captain stationed in Britain and Polly was a 17 year old protesting the military, and in the present, when Jack was a high ranking general and Polly was an EXTREMELY messy council member still protesting) were tedious to me. But I plodded on, and was rewarded near the end by something unexpected from Jack, and a fatal comedy of errors.

[Gayatri Swaminathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like his books because they always manage to turn my assumptions topsy-turvy... This book is a favourite, because it just grips you when you start reading and you HAVE to breathlessly reach the end before you can let the shock of it take over. I've passed it on to friends, with the same effect being replicated - only it's more fun then, because then I can go "which part have you reached?" and then say "Oh, wait, you haven't seen anything yet!"

[Cheryl Sinclair · Rating 4 out of 5]

Funny and unexpected, I didn’t quite know where this story was headed.

[Gavin Lightfoot · Rating 4 out of 5]

First time I've read Ben Elton, a love affair between a couple who are worlds apart, a stalker, and some very astute insights into human nature and politics. Quite a twist although I did see it coming eventually.

[Chiththarthan Nagarajan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nothing can come close to bring happiness like a book that has a deserved ending.

"Blast from the past" is one of the most interesting and gripping dark comedy I ever read. This book should be prescribed for people who wants to study about narration.

This book is grossly underrated. Such a phenomenal writing, why no one is talking about this book?


"When the phone rings at 2.15am in the morning it's unlikely to be heralding something pleasant. What chance is there of its being good news? None. Only someone bad would ring at such an hour. Or someone with bad news."

Ben Elton, Blast from the Past

[Jenny Sparrow · Rating 4 out of 5]

Это четвертый роман Бена Элтона, прочитанный мной, и первый, прочитанный у него в оригинале.

Ваша первая реакция на телефон, вдруг зазвонивший в 2.15 утра? Уж точно вы не ждете от него ничего хорошего, как и героиня книги Полли. Однако даже в самых смелых своих предположениях она и представить не могла, к чему приведёт этот звонок из прошлого... Сюжет завертится головокружительно, и до самого конца страсти будут только раскаляться. От начала и до конца повествования пройдет всего два часа, но для героев они станут поистине larger than life.

Бен Элтон уже давно значится в списке моих любимых писателей – за хороший слог, за тонкую сатиру, за остросюжетность и остросоциальность и за то, что с ним не бывает скучно. Вот и в этом романе смешалась и любовная история, и история предательства, и триллер, и сатира на современное общество, и хиппи, и вояки, и секс как фактор, движущий современным обществом... В общем, скучно с Беном снова не будет!

[Richard · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have read a couple of Ben Elton's other works in the past and quite enjoyed them (one was a Big Brother type spoof, the other vicious satire of crap like Pop Idol). And both were better than this one.
The whole story is set over about three hours, but the flashbacks that set the context span about seventeen years. The structure of the book is quite dodgy, the flashbacks would have been better together as the first part of the book.
The characters are wooden and to dimensional, caricatures in fact (especially the background characters such as Peter's Mum and the milkman - what has the author got agains milkmen?!) and the final reveal of General Kent's intention is just bonkers and completely unbelievable, and to top it all off an attempt to give it a happy ending? Mental.
Ben Elton has written some clever, well structured, witty and enjoyable books. This is not one of them.

[Amy Hawkins · Rating 2 out of 5]

While I usually enjoy reading Ben Elton, this is the book I have enjoyed the least. Not to say that I didnt like, but I usually class Ben Elton as easy reading and this was harder work. Jack Kent's long expositions on the state of America and the army were my least favourite aspect of the book. While they gave weight to the character, they felt dragged on in the narrative to long. I did however enjoy how the main action of the book took place in one night, but moved through Jack and Polly's shared and seperate history. Would not re-read and it wouldn't be my first recommendation to a friend who wanted to get into Elton. Too political for my tastes in easy reading.

[Wolfgang · Rating 4 out of 5]

After having read Kinky Friedman's take on the idiom, I can't resist any book or movie with this title. This one features a feminist, a stalker, and a soldier. All these characters are depicted to their utmost stereotypeness (is that a word?) and don't really come to life. But that doesn't matter, since I don't think Elton wanted to depicte real-life people. Instead, he chooses to take each character's inner monologues to the extremes, not only exposing the absurd lengths one might go if one's values turn into obsession, but also making the reader reflect on the relativity of my own values.

In summary, this book is highly enjoyable but inconsequential passtime.

[Thomas Stroemquist · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ben Elton and not comedy? It is written in his general humorous tone, but really has no other comedy elements in it. The pointed characters (extremely mismatched young lovers being reunited after 16 years, a stalker, some parents and friends) and the fact that most of the story takes place during a few hours of night in a small apartment gives it kind of a play feeling. Some interesting plot turns and great dialogue.

[Yarna · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a re-read for me. I always enjoy Ben Elton's writing style, and I had forgotten enough of the book that it mostly felt like I was reading with fresh eyes.

I liked the premise, the confluence of people and events over the course of one night, and thought it was cleverly played out.

My biggest niggle was the wrap up at the end felt like it was trying to stuff too much epilogue into not enough words. Apart from that, highly enjoyable.

[$uR£sHoT5£aN · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this book started out lighthearted and funny, however it seemed that the further into the book you get the darker and more sinister it became, what with stalkers, people with histories and secrets that needed to be kept at any costs, it all got a bit too heavy in the end!!

[Emma Haines · Rating 2 out of 5]

Liked the tongue in cheek writing but the lack of plot and unlikeable characters made it less enjoyable. Seems like it would make a good play, but the narrative goes round in circles too much to love it as a novel.

[Dannielle · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favourite book of all time, a must read.

[Рамон Меркадер · Rating 4 out of 5]

Страхотна история, накара ме да се замисля за доста неща от моя живот.
Колко много може да се каже в толкова малко, шапка му свалям на Бен Елтън за този роман!

[Leila P · Rating 4 out of 5]

I devoured the book fast, it was an intriguing thriller. The end twist took me totally by surprise!

[Zo' · Rating 1 out of 5]

Worst book I’ve ever read.

[Reuxbot · Rating 1 out of 5]

No. Just.. No.

[Some Body · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like how a book published in 90s certainly would look like.

[Лина Сакс · Rating 4 out of 5]

Остросюжетно, но все же затянуто. Много интересных вопросов поднято, много интересных мыслей озвучено.

Довольно неплохая книга в вопросах обоснования своей позиции. Тем более, что тут приведены ультра противоположные мнения. Когда только белое и только черное, и можно увидеть куда твое мнение по вопросам "цивилизации" клонится.
Еще очень хорошая книга в плане развития истории от хиппи и до конца девяностых. Изменение сознания людей: то великая нелюбовь к военным, то боготворение оных. Из крайности в крайность. Наша история радует нас подобными поворотами часто, да и мы сами творцы именно этой истории. Тут она рассказана через страны: США, Великобритания и даже немного Германии и России.
Это то важное, ради чего стоит читать книгу.

Если же взять сюжет иной, то есть часть более конкретизированный на героях с их чувствами, то он менее интересен, потому что более мелодраматичен, очень понятен, читай - предсказуем. Без сильных вопросов на основе того общего, что доносил ав��ор сплетая две точки зрения. Девушка, которая кажется себе неустроенной, хотя в принципе это так и есть, мужчина, который кажется себе очень устроенным, но на самом деле жрущий стресс каждую секунду. Есть еще двое героев, но они скорее как красный платок в фильме "Театр". Привлекают, но смысла особо не несут. Хотя, может, если подойти аллегорически, то Питер - это угроза, да и главный отвлекающий маневр книги, а Гари- это любовь и "жилетка" по всей книге.

Ой, есть ведь еще один отвлекающий красный платок - это Шульц- человек, который ничего не делает, делать не умеет, но поднимается до вершин правления, потому что ему ничего не предъявишь, ибо он пустое место, ну что ему предъявить пустому-то месту?

Это не тот случай, когда кого-то интересует, чья квалификация выше. Это тот случай, когда вероятность дисквалификации наименьшая.

Взаимоотношения Полли и Джека- это были сразу конченные отношения. Я не имею ввиду секс, когда под страстью не надо ни думать, ни говорить, а именно когда создается общая реальность - разговоры. Ну, и заодно, то, как они себя ведут в одном пространстве, что у Полли нормальное состояние, когда кресло похоже скорее на ведро для мусора, а Джек выученный по уставу прибирает машинально даже в гостиничном номере за собой кровать. Даже, если бы они очень сильно захотели, то прожили бы семейной жизнью, ну хорошо, если месяца три. Флёр от обаятельного гнева Полли слетел бы, и открылось, что все темы на какие они говорят, это сплошь ругань и противостояние. Выскочила бы неустроенность к какой привыкла Полли, ей была бы в тягость та точность, какую следует соблюдать жене военного, особенно, если он нацелен на карьерный рост. Так что не было тут никакой возможности быть и жить счастливо.

Так что , если советовать это читать, то только ради того, чтобы принять уже решение по вопросам, которые поднимает книга, а не болтаться фекалиями в ограниченном пространстве, из которого вполне возможно, еще и пить придется.