Didn't really enjoy this book, didn't really seem to have much of a point and the characters were quite annoying. I actually left this book in the hotel on holiday after finishing it!
I found it hard to classify this book - it stems from a film producer's desperate search for an idea. There are some comedic elements, some attempts at social commentary and lots of scathing attacks on the London media types.
There are some really good moments in the book, however, for me, it just didn't go anywhere meaningful. There are some pretty trite moments and plot devices.
The characters started off as quite believable, but then veered into parodies of themselves, and some of the actions and decisions were so fanciful the book should have started off "Once upon a time..."
I first read 'White merc with fins' by the same author and I liked it a lot because it was a fun book, but for some reason it took me a while to pick this one up. The whole drug thing didn't appeal to me at all and i was affraid the book would be dull.
I have to confess it took me a while to get into it and start to care for the main characters, but after a while it started to get fun and I ended up liking it a lot. It's funny and lighter than I expected with lots of stabs at film people.
I still feel like laughing whenever someone mentions artichokes.
James Hawes is a funny writer and he captures beautifully the facile nature of the beautiful people that inhabit the british film world the hangers on and the movers and shakers and the deal makers. A blitz of Cocaine, sundowners and people you really don't want to spend with. A heroine who manages get out before it all crashes very much like the Cinema orange advert where the idea for a film becomes so far from its origins it turns into a stinker luckily this book redeems itself if the character don't.