Brilliant setting - Rated 
This book should have been titled "When Media goes bad." VERNON GOD LITTLE reads like a combination of some McCrae novel (BARK OF THE DOGWOOD) and a DeLillo fabrication set on paper (UNDERWORLD) only with a dash of Flannery O'Connor. Weird and wonderful, this is the story of Vernon Gregory Little's life in a small Texas town. Complete with the usual Southern weirdos we've all come to know and love (CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES) it rings at once true and also over-blown. But there's a method too the madness in this surreal absurdist but true-to-life tale that could have happened. With our protagonist's life completely no upsidedown because of a school shooting, the media descends vulture-like, on the town and uproots all sense of normalcy. With excellent precision the author shows up the ugly side of human nature, and the uplifting aspect that can occasionally emerge. A tale told by not quite and idiot, this is a fantastic foray into the land of stream of consciousness Texas babble. If you like the novels CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES and BARK OF THE DOGWOOD, then VGL will set perfectly with you. I know it did with me.
Even without magic or robots.. - Rated
This book is constantly clever and constantly funny. The kind of read that's more like a conversation than a lecture; it doesn't overstate points and if you're willing, it lets you think far and wide without straying from the story.
In a couple of places some of the descriptions strike as perhaps a little too constructed, but the joy of reading the rest makes that up as far as I'm concerned.
The writing is fast and fierce, but whereas some novels with a similar writing style are driven by that alone, there's also an honestly engaging, nerve-twisting plot, and some well constructed mystery. My favourite thing (maybe) is that Vernon is so honest - he tells you exactly what he finds wrong with (for example) his mother. But then he talks about how that is ok really, and his affection for her, and how he understands why she acts as she does.. And then, he re-states her faults as soon as she annoys or hurts him again. It's like being inside your own head.
I highly advise anybody to read this. Even if you usually like a little fantasy in your fiction.
A slow starter - Rated 
I had no idea what to expect with this book and was a bit baffled at the start as to why it was so hyped. The story jogged along ok but I felt little sympathy for the main character. The review on the back of my copy said there was a joke on every page but I failed to see anything funny in the first 3/4 of the book. Things did pick up towards the end and some really interesting points were made about reality TV and our obsession with celebrity - if only the rest of the book could have been as thought-provoking and insightful
Quite a surprise... - Rated
I was lent a copy of Vernon God Little to read over the spring holidays, along with fifteen other books. I'm a primary school teacher: a literacy specialist, and I like to use the holidays to keep up with reading: to know what's new, and what's good, and what's worth promoting. Reading the cover, the blurb and the first few pages of DBC Little's book put me right off. Yes, it was full of expletives, it was shocking, and it was chaotically written. I looked at his biographical notes and wondered if here we had someone who was making a buck and a name for himself out of the sensation value of describing the events of a 'mispent youth'.
However, something about the story began to hook me, and over two days I read the whole book. By the time I finished it, I had changed my mind completely, and I'm logged on today to buy a copy to send to my highly experimental teenage daughter. I think it will help her enormously on her search for maturity and understanding of how the world works.
DBC Pierre has an incredibly evocative way with descriptions. Yes, they're descriptions of experiences we may never wish to have, but they're brilliantly worded - really very creative in their use of imagery - and not reliant for their effectiveness on the expletives and scatalogical content, either: he's using words in a wonderful, fresh, imaginative way.
The reason for the chaos, and the expletives, is that the main character, Vernon is FIFTEEN at the start of the novel. It is his 'fifteen-ness' that gets him into all the trouble of the book. He can't express himself clearly, or work out his own emotions. He can't explain his motives or understand his relationships. DBC Pierre paints this portrait of 'fifteen-ness' by his clever use of language. Bottom-of-the-heap 'Fifteen-ness' is a really not-very-nice-place to be: and that is what we are seeing in the expletives and scatalogical references Pierre uses: not clumsy writing, or writing done for shock value alone. By the end of the novel there are no more expletives (and here I have to say that those reviewers who cite expletives as a criticism of the novel obviously didn't read it very carefully, or they would have noticed this.) because Vernon Little has CHANGED. All through the book, Vernon Little is slowly growing up, making observations about life, and noting 'learnings'. DBC Pierre's fifteen year old is so accurately drawn: really in many ways he's JUST like my own fifteen year old son - with the same warped sense of meaning, sexuality, cause and effect - it's achingly real, and Pierre handles the slow maturation to adulthood wonderfully.
Yet the book is not just about a kid growing up; it's funny as well. Every move Vernon Little tries to make, every decision, every action - all lead him further into trouble until DBC Pierre leaves even his own creatively dark picture of Texas and takes off for a fantasy universe where the public have 24/7 cameras on Death Row prisoners and can vote for who will be executed first. What a wonderful comment on the status that reality T.V. has now achieved in the world!
The denouement of the story is all that any reader could hope for - it has a satisfying ending and the baddies get their comeuppance. The threads of the story all tie together beautifully with no clumsiness at all, leaving you amazed at all the details cleverly planted by Pierre that you hardly noticed as they were happening - but which were right there under your nose all along and come together elegantly by the last page.
So, why am I sending this book to my daughter? DBC Pierre writes very clearly throughout the story of the way we parents guilt-trip our kids, but he also makes it plain that our efforts are not to be condemned entirely: the positive result of the 'knives', as he refers to them, is the eventual ownership of that essential human possession: a conscience. DBC Pierre also has a beautifully actualised vision of 'what people really want' and of our very real power to grant them their wishes. I believe this book will inspire my daughter to a greater sense of empowerment and a higher level of self esteem in ways that I cannot.
I am amazed that some of the more negative reviewers of this book have failed to understand, or it seems even to perceive the important messages carefully delivered by DBC Pierre in 'Vernon God Little', and have in fact mistaken the wrapper for the candy bar. This particular candy bar needed this particular wrapper in order for its message to be as effective as it is.
I'm quite surprised to find myself writing this review, as I would not have thought it possible that I would enjoy this book when I began reading it a few days ago. However, as someone in my professional position, I feel I really must speak positively in defence of this impressive first novel.
Damned fine. - Rated
I am disapointed by the other reviews here which seem to rant and rant and rant about how awful this book is in every respect. I couldn't have a more different opinion. I think its wonderful, its own slightly weird way.
You can probably find a better written synopsis of the book then I could produce, so I shan't attempt to out line the plot at all. The books works so well because of the slightly awkward way its written, and its written in a way that the main character, Vernon, could be imagined to speak. It doesn't hide behind flowery and irrelavent language like it could. Instead it remains gritty and real, and yet despite this vulgarity and simplicity DBC pierre manages to produce some mighty fine descriptions and phrases that are in their own way simply beautiful.
Although not entirely plausable I couldn't help but find myself wishing all the luck in the world on our protagonist as he struggles through a life where everything is clearly stacked against him (even his personality its weighing him down at some points). The book illustrates modern media based society at its worst and shows us the dangers of such a world in a way thats very hard to miss. Both message and story are poignient and leave their mark on you both durring an after you have finished the book. All in all a great read, and one you should read.
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