or Book report
My brother and sister-in-law, knowing of my fondness for “The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson,” bought me a copy of Ferguson’s novel, “Between The Bridge and The River,” for my birthday. It arrived last week; I finished it today (my actual birthday isn’t until tomorrow, and I won’t celebrate with the rest of the family until next weekend).
I enjoyed the book immensely. Of course, the book has a universalist, just-be-nice-to-people theme that (as readers of Neuron’s Cove will recognize) I don’t necessarily subscribe to. It’s also bawdy in spots, so don’t buy it for your grandmother.
But it’s a good read, a lot of fun, and has a wonderful upbeat ending. (”Profane on its surface, ethical at its core, and always fun,” according to the Kirkus Reviews jacket blurb.) Its criticisms of organized religion and the ways in which it can be exploited for personal gain ring very true. The writing style calls to mind Douglas Adams in spots, and the road-trip subplot in the second half of the book made me think of one of my favorite novels, “Handling Sin” by Michael Malone.
The book has several concurrent plots playing themselves out. George and Fraser are introduced as childhood friends in Scotland at the beginning of the novel, but then they go their separate ways. Fraser is a TV evangelist who flees the U.K. after being exposed in a sex scandal. Dreams in which he converses with Carl Jung, and a near-death experience, eventually lead to a spiritual epiphany of sorts. George, meanwhile, is diagnosed with the same cancer that killed both his parents; he runs off to Paris and finds solace in the arms of a woman who has, quite innocently, survived numerous lovers, becoming sort of a benign “black widow.”
Meanwhile, in the U.S., two half-brothers — the secret and illegitimate children of Frank Sinatra (Leon) and Peter Lawford (Saul) — become snake handlers at a remote country church, then Hollywood heavyweights, then founders of their own religion. Clueless Leon inherits his father’s musical ability and way with the ladies, while Saul becomes his obese, warped and manipulative manager.
Ferguson did not train to be a talk show host; in fact, he’s written two movies and directed one of them. So this is a real novel, not a ghost-written attempt to cash in on TV fame. Ferguson’s style is breezy, fun and irreverent, much you’d expect from the storytelling in his “Late Late Show” monologues.
A good read, and a good birthday present.
.
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January 29, 2008 at 8:01 pm
[...] to the very funny talk show host (and novelist) Craig Ferguson, who passed his citizenship test last week and ...