A hilarious novel from previously published, successful author Simon Nolan, about a young woman hired by a special unit created by the Blair government to induce people to be more rational.
Mel Banff is hired by the shadowy `Rationality Unit' created by the Blair government to induce people to make rational decisions in their lives so they won't waste public money. She begins to interact with a family in Brighton (Whitehawk estates) made up of strange eccentric pink-kneed Kenneth, his overweight, turkey-necked wife June, a pair of twins, one of whom is always wrapped in a sheet, and a mildly hysterical, precocious teenage girl Kelly. There's also Dane, a young hotshot cousin, and a host of other deranged characters.
Mel soon gets caught up in the family's outrageous madness: she hears dog ghosts, finds wedding dresses with tracksuit trimmings, and witnesses sex between Dane and (underage) Kelly. In the end, although Mel tries her best to impose rationality and prevent an incestuous and paedophiliac wedding, she unwittingly becomes part of an extremely bizarre ritual in a narrative twist that challenges all rational explanation...Not only Mel but members of her family risk death if she doesn't figure out what to do.
Genre: Literary Fiction
Mel Banff is hired by the shadowy `Rationality Unit' created by the Blair government to induce people to make rational decisions in their lives so they won't waste public money. She begins to interact with a family in Brighton (Whitehawk estates) made up of strange eccentric pink-kneed Kenneth, his overweight, turkey-necked wife June, a pair of twins, one of whom is always wrapped in a sheet, and a mildly hysterical, precocious teenage girl Kelly. There's also Dane, a young hotshot cousin, and a host of other deranged characters.
Mel soon gets caught up in the family's outrageous madness: she hears dog ghosts, finds wedding dresses with tracksuit trimmings, and witnesses sex between Dane and (underage) Kelly. In the end, although Mel tries her best to impose rationality and prevent an incestuous and paedophiliac wedding, she unwittingly becomes part of an extremely bizarre ritual in a narrative twist that challenges all rational explanation...Not only Mel but members of her family risk death if she doesn't figure out what to do.
Genre: Literary Fiction
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Used availability for Simon Maginn's Whitehawk