By Design: Reader Reviews
Thanks to Duncan Driver for sending us his review:
I have just finished reading “By Design” and must say that I am surprised by how much I enjoyed it. I loved “With Nails”, but the woeful reviews and inclusion of “Design” on Who Weekly’s worst books of 1998 had led me to expect that REG’s literary prowess had faded. Not so. “Design” has its flaws, but is one of those rare books that can make you laugh out loud, not just from REG’s fantastic gift for exaggeration and sarcasm, but also from the behavioral tendencies of his well crafted characters, many of which are instantly recognisable.
Richard Eagles and his wife Kyla are a thinly disguised Bruce and Demi, while Georgia’s lack of inhibition and tact and very reminiscent of the Sandra Bernhard antics REG described in his first book “With Nails”.
It is difficult not to grimace at each and every aspect of the ill-fated “Zeitgeist” as it descends into chaos, from Java’s attempted seductions to the final low of Jj behind bars and Mort in the hospital. This section of the book is wisely written in diary form, and affords the reader the same blow by blow account of a big budget films’ production the REG gave us of Hudson Hawk, making it all the more familiar and believable.
It is fair to say that REG does aim some pretty harsh criticism at the Hollywood phenomenon and the people that live in it, but the criticism is valid, and some faith in the community is restored by Vyvian, the sane and (relatively) calm protagonist of the novel that is all to aware of the towns’ flaws but loves it in spite of, or perhaps because of them from his inside observer position.
“By Design” delivers the same “barbs and shrewd observations” as “With Nails”, but allows us a deeper and more significant insight into the Hollywood Psyche. The plot and characterisation have their good and bad points, but overall “By Design” is a very funny and insightful novel that both attacks and marvels at the Hollywood.
Reviewed by Sally Odgers
– author of "Candle Iron", "Shadowdancers" and "Translations in Celadon"
Having bought "With Nails" to while away a long wait at the airport, and laughed my way all the way to the motel, I was delighted to discover "By Design". So – what do the books have in common, apart from their author and a highly individual and jaundiced look at Hollywood?
A narrator who has the reader on-side and cheering him on from the first page. Both REG (narrator/hero of "With Nails") and Vyvian Cork, (narrator/hero of "By Design") are African-born. Both are tall, thin and dark. Both have a cynical way of looking at life, and both have a kindly touch that keeps their revelations well this side of cruelty. Both have an expert touch in shaping plots and describing larger-than-life characters.
With all this in common, are REG and Vy clones? Not in the least! REG is an actor, Vy is a designer. Both are observers, but REG observes from within, while Vy observes from without. REG is less sure of himself, less of an egoist.
"By Design" is a clever, witty, sharply observed novel that pokes barbed fun at the Hollywood we all watch from a safe distance. The language makes it unsuited to the young or easily shocked, but for anyone else, it’s great fun.
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