A darkly comic novel, it focuses on the title teenager, Vernon Little, who lives in a small town in Texas in the aftermath of a horrible school shooting where Vernon’s best friend killed sixteen students followed by himself. When the rubbing of her thighs has faded, I crane my nostrils for any vague comfort; a whiff of warm toast, a spearmint breath. I saw a review from the SF Chronicle that described this book that way, and it's hard to improve on. His lawyer exposes Goosens' criminal behavior, discrediting his testimony for the State, and Taylor and Lally are seen entrapping Vernon. The "ladies" having this discussion live in Martirio, "the barbecue sauce capital of Texas", and one of them is Doris, mother of Vernon, our hero.

Vernon God Little by DBC Pierre | Book Club Discussion Vernon God Little by DBC Pierre | Book Club Discussion

Vernon wasn't there when the massacre happened: his teacher sent him on an errand, and his loose bowels make for an embarrassing alibi -- so embarrassing he (ridiculously) refuses to mention it for far too long.This is a story of Vernon God Little - a 15 year old fellow who was caught at the wrong time in school when his best friend Jesus killed 15 students in his class and later shot down himself. His identity is filtered through favorite words (“slime,” “cream pie,” “fucken”), which capture a teenager’s self-absorption, but nothing more: there is no vision of his world. The den also yields up Jesus' suicide note, condemning Goosens and Nuckles to prison for pedophilia.

Vernon God Little by D.B.C. Pierre | Goodreads

Perhaps this is the blinkered way a teenage mind might see thing (and all this is seen through Vernon's eyes), but it comes across as discordant. Vernon's mother's best friend, Palmyra, is the only woman in their circle so fat that she makes Mrs Little feel good about herself: 'Mom's other friends are slimmer. The author lapses into a lazy magical realism here and there to cover what seemed like impossible plot developments, but the storyline travels ahead on Pierre’s keen observations that describe, for example, the smell of real life as similar to that of escalator motors. Beyond the body-bags and barbecue sauce, the vicissitudes of Vernon reveal not just a rebel for the Eminem generation, but a boy of such sweetness he makes death row a respectable address. The local sexual molester, Mr Deutschman, has "the voice quality of genuine oleness, like he swallowed a vibrator or something".

But, in the process, Pierre's story and Ronder's version offer a biliously funny account of the commercialisation of horror. He was shocked to see the first American edition of the book that I posses, he said that was very rare, and now I have that copy author signed as well :P. And all his mother can do is eat the Barn's Chik'n'Mix and pray for a side-by-side fridge (special edition, almond shade).

Vernon God Little - Wikipedia

German director Werner Herzog has been developing a possible film adaptation of Vernon God Little based on a screenplay by Andrew Birkin. The rackety personal history of DBC Pierre – real name Peter Warren Finlay – was the main talking point in the aftermath of his win, rather than the merits of his novel. He goes on to recount his nightmarish, Kafkaesque experience (as he is later accused, charged and found guilty of murder) with the tone and insight that mostly befits his age and outsider status. You didn't need to know this, but when I was a kid I used to be kind of unpredictable, for 'Number Twos' anyway.I will attempt to make this review quite long, so that you will read a realistic account of the quality of this book before you read the boorish and thoughtless dismissals that abound below.

would make my life better? A tapir” DBC Pierre Q+A: “What would make my life better? A tapir”

If you have concerns about how we have used your personal information, you also have the right to complain to a privacy regulator. So after I that I watched "Elephant" which may not be such a masterpiece itself but it's better'n this bad book. Vern is convicted, then pardoned; what saves him are his own dried turds, found miles from the crime scene (“Stool’s Out! The plot is masterly, drawing you inexorably into the dystopian fantasy which the author is developing. All this generates some laughs, but as a subject for satire, the rapacity of television news is as fresh as reruns of Hard Copy.Also there was a media channel that proposes in the later half of the book:the reality show based on convicts and gain of votes on sympathy. Vernon trusts the system to find out the truth, and his lawyer exposes Goosen’s criminal behavior, which discredits his testimony. The mundane yet tortuous relationship between teenager and parent is also always on Vernon’s mind as he describes his mother as turning the knife when she embarrasses him or makes him feel guilty: ‘Between you and me, it’s like she planted a knife in my back when I was born, and now every fucken noise she makes just gives it a turn.