What We're Reading

It is 2008 and Canary Wharf is in the grip of financial meltdown, so to assume this is going to be a drawn out diatribe blaming it on the bankers would not be unreasonable. Fortunately there is more to it the that.

Protagonist Matt Freeman, an apparently oblivious casualty of the crunch, has convinced himself to be more concerned by an ill-fitting pair of Lindberg spectacles than the fact the economy is limping along. Harmless enough so far, but don't get too comfortable.

As Matt vents his frustrations, it becomes all too clear he is losing his grip on reality.
Obvious comparisons can be made to American Psycho, most glaringly the intense first person narrative from an obsessive, unbalanced character, preoccupied by top end consumables - but this is not the cut-and-dried story of a psychopath.

Unlike Brett Easton Ellis's 1991 best-seller, Get Me Out Of Here is neither graphically violent nor overtly explicit. A delicate little flower like myself could stomach the contents, albeit with the occasional nose wrinkling of distaste. For the most part, any after-the-watershed drama is implied.

If you like your stories spoon-fed, this might not be the novel for you. If you can abandon the cutlery, hand sanitiser and table manners - tuck in.