Vernon God Little

January 30, 2005

Vernon God Little was much fun for me as a title because the strength of the title does not become apparent until the last two chapters of the book. I’m not much of a person to get hung up on titles, but it was a bit of a question rattling around in my head through the whole book.

There’s much talk about the book being a foray into satirical comedy pointed at the US. This is very true and very admirable in the book. Still, in reading the book I felt like I was reading a hip contemporary version of The Stranger, written in vernacular. This book was written by a man who was born ain Australia, lived in Mexico and the US, and currently resides in Ireland. I can’t help wondering if folks who aren’t American by passport are better suited to telling the world about America. Interesting that the author seems closer to his characters than I would have imagined.

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