He got the mix right
Feb. 13th, 2007 08:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
catalyst2Just finished reading "A Certain Chemistry" by Mil Millington. The is his second book and just as good as his first - not as funny, mind, but a better story.
Tom Cartwright is a ghost writer who gets the opportunity to write the "autobiography" of the most popular soaplette in the Britain. He's gong to be paid a fortune (150 000 pounds) and this will just top off the perfect life he now has with girlfriend Sara. Of course, this is the point that at which everything begins to spiral utterly out of control, seemingly inevitably (if the intervening human chemistry monologues by God are to be believed). He writes the book (a little too well, I suspect), falls in love with the soaplette and has sex with her. His utterly inept attempts to cover this up are some of the funniest parts of the book for me as he converts innocent conversations and situations into incoherent ravings that would be suspicious to anyone. In the end, the soaplette doesn't want to see him any more but Sara finds out and throws him out anyway. His attempt to "woo" Sara back is the very funniest scene - but it is almost as painful as watching a car crash at the same time. He is unsuccessful and Sara leaves him for good. There is a nice little epilogue ("Two Years Later" kind of thing) which shows that he has learned nothing and changed not one whit.
Overall, I liked the book - Millington definitely has an ear for the funny phrase and some of his descriptions are hilarious. The plot was OK - not original, but at least there was no happy ending (from Tom's point of view any way). There were a number of characters that added to the story, even if some were a bit cliched (the hard-drinking literary agent, the loopy editor etc). Overall a funny and engaging read.
Tom Cartwright is a ghost writer who gets the opportunity to write the "autobiography" of the most popular soaplette in the Britain. He's gong to be paid a fortune (150 000 pounds) and this will just top off the perfect life he now has with girlfriend Sara. Of course, this is the point that at which everything begins to spiral utterly out of control, seemingly inevitably (if the intervening human chemistry monologues by God are to be believed). He writes the book (a little too well, I suspect), falls in love with the soaplette and has sex with her. His utterly inept attempts to cover this up are some of the funniest parts of the book for me as he converts innocent conversations and situations into incoherent ravings that would be suspicious to anyone. In the end, the soaplette doesn't want to see him any more but Sara finds out and throws him out anyway. His attempt to "woo" Sara back is the very funniest scene - but it is almost as painful as watching a car crash at the same time. He is unsuccessful and Sara leaves him for good. There is a nice little epilogue ("Two Years Later" kind of thing) which shows that he has learned nothing and changed not one whit.
Overall, I liked the book - Millington definitely has an ear for the funny phrase and some of his descriptions are hilarious. The plot was OK - not original, but at least there was no happy ending (from Tom's point of view any way). There were a number of characters that added to the story, even if some were a bit cliched (the hard-drinking literary agent, the loopy editor etc). Overall a funny and engaging read.
