Vintage £7.99
The Afterparty, By Leo Benedictus
Not enough story to tell – how very postmodern
Sunday 12 February 2012
Latest in Reviews
How do you satirise the vapid, shallow world of celebrity? By showing it as, er, vapid and shallow, apparently.
There's really not much else you can do. And so, lack of surprise means a rather laborious meander through the chapters of aspiring writer William Mendez's book-within-a-book, which purports to expose the death of a hellraiser (deliberately echoing a case involving Pete Doherty). There's not really enough plot here, and so the novel switches into postmodern mode halfway through, as Mendez asks Leo Benedictus to stand in for him at a meeting with his publishers from whom he wants to hide his identity, and so postmodernly on.
- 1 Publishing: Rude bits in disguise
- 2 A dark day for goths (in a good way)
- 3 The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (12A)
- 4 BANNED: The most controversial films
- 5 French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy calls for West to intervene in Syria
- 6 Spencer Tunick creates 'naked Dead Sea'
- 7 Free Range: Meet the designers of tomorrow
- 8 Win a limited edition Tracey Emin monoprint
- 9 The ten best: Bollywood movies
- 10 Cannes: Too much rain, too few women, but great movies
- 1 Mark Zuckerberg saved $111m by selling Facebook shares before stock slumped
- 2 Brazil rocked by abortion for 9-year-old rape victim
- 3 Schoolboy spiked brownies with cannabis in cookery class
- 4 Police letter reveals St Paul’s cathedral involvement in Occupy eviction
- 5 Fat? Really? Olympic hope laughs off official’s jibe – but others aren’t amused
- 6 'Hello mum, this is going to be hard for you to read ...'
- 7 African monkey meat that could be behind the next HIV
- 8 Cameron aide's cosy chats with News Corp revealed
- 9 Coke reveals its secret: It may need to carry a cancer warning
- 10 French in uproar over oral sex anti-smoking posters
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