Dan Rhodes' first book Anthropology consists of 101 stories, each around 120 words in length, and all working highly surreal variations around a single theme: relationships. A simple enough idea which is superlatively executed--the range and inventiveness of the texts within the strict format reveal a writer of formidable imaginative powers, able to move with ease from wit to farcical comedy to genuinely heartfelt evocations of loss and love. Each story is almost like a condensed novel, a distilled narrative that focuses on a particular moment, gesture or conversation, humorously unravelling the fragile structures and barely disguised inequalities that characterise the détente between the sexes.

If the stories are individually quirky, bizarre and amusing, paradoxically the incremental effect is one that is surprisingly revealing of the deep, tectonic instabilities in our relationships with partners and lovers.

If the touchstone of Anthropology is, in the end, a kind of disbelieving laughter, it is emphatically not observational humour, nor the bittersweet angst of wry comedy that dominates much contemporary fiction: Rhodes highlights the essential absurdity of heterosexual relationships, the fundamental incomprehension and misunderstandings that divide men and women. The wayward commandments of desire, the desperate mismatches of affection, the hilarious disjunctions of perception, the disequilibria of power, all are scrutinised in turn by the author's cool, deadpan prose; and the superficial equivalence of form mimics the fact that, while relationships may seem similar on the surface, each is uniquely odd, perverse or disfunctional.

The structure of the book is reminiscent of Raymond Queneau's Exercises in Style, its tone occasionally recalls Donald Barthelme's elegant postmodern short fiction, but Anthropology nevertheless mines a seam distinctly its own: quirky, surreal, often wildly funny and cumulatively profound. --Burhan TufailDan Rhodes' first book Anthropology consists of 101 stories, each around 120 words in length, and all working highly surreal variations around a single theme: relationships. A simple enough idea which is superlatively executed--the range and inventiveness of the texts within the strict format reveal a writer of formidable imaginative powers, able to move with ease from wit to farcical comedy to genuinely heartfelt evocations of loss and love. Each story is almost like a condensed novel, a distilled narrative that focuses on a particular moment, gesture, or conversation, humourously unravelling the fragile structures and barely disguised inequalities that characterise the détente between the sexes.

If the stories are individually quirky, bizarre and amusing, paradoxically the incremental effect is one that is surprisingly revealing of the deep, tectonic instabilities in our relationships with partners and lovers.

If the touchstone of Anthropology is, in the end, a kind of disbelieving laughter, it is emphatically not observational humour, nor the bittersweet angst of wry comedy that dominates much contemporary fiction: Rhodes highlights the essential absurdity of heterosexual relationships, the fundamental incomprehension and misunderstandings that divide men and women. The wayward commandments of desire, the desperate mismatches of affection, the hilarious disjunctions of perception, the disequilibria of power, all are scrutinised in turn by the author's cool, deadpan prose; and the superficial equivalence of form mimics the fact that, while relationships may seem similar on the surface, each is uniquely odd, perverse, or disfunctional.

The structure of the book is reminiscent of Raymond Queneau's Exercises in Style, its tone occasionally recalls Donald Barthelme's elegant postmodern short fiction, but Anthropology nevertheless mines a seam distinctly its own: quirky, surreal, often wildly funny, and cumulatively profound. --Burhan Tufail

An easy read that will leave you wonder..., 27 Jun 2008
Life is short, and so is this book. I found it very readable because it paints life scenes with a few words, the essential ones. Relationship is the essence of our society and I believe this book has it quite close to the truth, amplified by the sometimes weird choices of tones.

Bite-sized voyage into the dark heart of relationship horror..., 26 Mar 2007
Dan Rhodes is fast becoming one of my favourite British authors, up there with Tibor Fischer and Martin Amis. This is a fine showcase of his talents. A box of bittersweet pills, this collection of stories, easy to swallow at only a paragraph long, showcase the cruel and unusual (and funny) side of relationships from a distinctly male perspective. With a touch of Raymond Queneau, it is an exercise in style within a restricted form, but it's also a bite-sized voyage into the dark heart of relationship horror, lightened by the inherent ridiculousness of a man in love. Is it postmodern? What is a pen?

Reissue of 2000's classic collection, 02 Oct 2006
I have never read anything else by this author, though I know I really should, but I can say that it's one of the best books I've read and one I return to regularly to cheer myself up and assure me everything isn't lost.

A relative of Raymond Queneau's `Exercises in Style', `Anthropology and a Hundred Other Stories' was the debut collection by Dan Rhodes, offering up 101 paragraph long stories centred on a single word. Each `story' can be read in seconds, all centre around girlfriends from a male perspective, many of them feel like variant on the same joke.

The first time I read this was on a train, I'm sure the people sitting opposite me thought there was something wrong with me as I made hysterical noises in a public place. Parts of it are as hilarious as early Martin Amis - there's one part in `Dead Babies' (haven't read it in years) that made me shudder with laughter - this book is like a one-hundred-and-one versions of that.

Some of the stories are a bit surreal and may not seem as funny as certain others, but there is no problem as you can just flip to the next one. It's all in the worst possible taste - ex-lovers humiliating people, naïve boyfriends misunderstanding sexual diseases picked up by a salesmen girlfriend, the indifferent couple who adore each other really, a death-bed lesbian tryst, a boyfriend rushing his girlfriend to hospital for fear she has terminal pneumonia and life will lose all meaning (after she coughed with symptoms of a minor cold), the girlfriend who won't let her boyfriend kiss her until they find the perfect place (Paris, the Bahamas and the Taj Mahal not being the right location), the ex-boyfriend arrested for groping his ex when they went to the cinema, and `Innocence', which is far too rude to repeat her, but invoked something like St Vitus dance in me on that train as I read it.

I guess you'd call this a micro-read, it's wonderfully crafted and concise stuff and the kind of book that makes me very jealous and I really wish I'd thought of. The bonus is that anyone could read this book, I'm sure girls would get an interesting perspective as guys would associate with the boyfriends here. I gave this book to a female friend for her birthday a few years ago, which is why this reissue is very welcome, and she found it hilarious and probably would have given me her body on the strength of it alone (though of course I'd have ended up with something like the scenario of `Open' or `Plan' here!!!). A great, great book that everyone should read - certainly a book that I re-read and can't live without...which is why I've bought it at least four times!!!




One of my favourite books, 13 Mar 2004
Blissful sums this one up. 101 stories, each 101 words long, the whole thing readable in a couple of hours but it will stay with you infinitely longer. These are very short stories about love, all told from a male perspective, and almost every one is a winner. Some make you laugh, some make you cry, but they all prove that Dan Rhodes is a fantastic writer, and this is a book to treasure.

From A to Z...brilliant stuff., 25 Jan 2004
As a 15 year old boy i know nothing about life. How a relationship should go, how people come and go through life or how it feels to have your heart pulled out of your body with a corkscrew (please..not literally). But it seems though that, Dan Rhodes has. In Anthropology... he gives paragraph stories describing the low points and high points of love but does it in a way that feels real enough, but if it happened not only would it disturd but genuinely rattle you. Here lies the appeal. If you love and relate to relationship issues, you will see this as a mocking of all the fundementals of a break up or of love. The book loves to go back onto itself but this book is going on the theme of love, so how else can you change the plot? Not as great as "don't tell me the truth about love" but as a starter to Rhodes style of writing, this book will enlighten you in any break or support.

An easy read that will leave you wonder..., 27 Jun 2008
Life is short, and so is this book. I found it very readable because it paints life scenes with a few words, the essential ones. Relationship is the essence of our society and I believe this book has it quite close to the truth, amplified by the sometimes weird choices of tones.

Bite-sized voyage into the dark heart of relationship horror..., 26 Mar 2007
Dan Rhodes is fast becoming one of my favourite British authors, up there with Tibor Fischer and Martin Amis. This is a fine showcase of his talents. A box of bittersweet pills, this collection of stories, easy to swallow at only a paragraph long, showcase the cruel and unusual (and funny) side of relationships from a distinctly male perspective. With a touch of Raymond Queneau, it is an exercise in style within a restricted form, but it's also a bite-sized voyage into the dark heart of relationship horror, lightened by the inherent ridiculousness of a man in love. Is it postmodern? What is a pen?

Reissue of 2000's classic collection, 02 Oct 2006
I have never read anything else by this author, though I know I really should, but I can say that it's one of the best books I've read and one I return to regularly to cheer myself up and assure me everything isn't lost.

A relative of Raymond Queneau's `Exercises in Style', `Anthropology and a Hundred Other Stories' was the debut collection by Dan Rhodes, offering up 101 paragraph long stories centred on a single word. Each `story' can be read in seconds, all centre around girlfriends from a male perspective, many of them feel like variant on the same joke.

The first time I read this was on a train, I'm sure the people sitting opposite me thought there was something wrong with me as I made hysterical noises in a public place. Parts of it are as hilarious as early Martin Amis - there's one part in `Dead Babies' (haven't read it in years) that made me shudder with laughter - this book is like a one-hundred-and-one versions of that.

Some of the stories are a bit surreal and may not seem as funny as certain others, but there is no problem as you can just flip to the next one. It's all in the worst possible taste - ex-lovers humiliating people, naïve boyfriends misunderstanding sexual diseases picked up by a salesmen girlfriend, the indifferent couple who adore each other really, a death-bed lesbian tryst, a boyfriend rushing his girlfriend to hospital for fear she has terminal pneumonia and life will lose all meaning (after she coughed with symptoms of a minor cold), the girlfriend who won't let her boyfriend kiss her until they find the perfect place (Paris, the Bahamas and the Taj Mahal not being the right location), the ex-boyfriend arrested for groping his ex when they went to the cinema, and `Innocence', which is far too rude to repeat her, but invoked something like St Vitus dance in me on that train as I read it.

I guess you'd call this a micro-read, it's wonderfully crafted and concise stuff and the kind of book that makes me very jealous and I really wish I'd thought of. The bonus is that anyone could read this book, I'm sure girls would get an interesting perspective as guys would associate with the boyfriends here. I gave this book to a female friend for her birthday a few years ago, which is why this reissue is very welcome, and she found it hilarious and probably would have given me her body on the strength of it alone (though of course I'd have ended up with something like the scenario of `Open' or `Plan' here!!!). A great, great book that everyone should read - certainly a book that I re-read and can't live without...which is why I've bought it at least four times!!!




One of my favourite books, 13 Mar 2004
Blissful sums this one up. 101 stories, each 101 words long, the whole thing readable in a couple of hours but it will stay with you infinitely longer. These are very short stories about love, all told from a male perspective, and almost every one is a winner. Some make you laugh, some make you cry, but they all prove that Dan Rhodes is a fantastic writer, and this is a book to treasure.

From A to Z...brilliant stuff., 25 Jan 2004
As a 15 year old boy i know nothing about life. How a relationship should go, how people come and go through life or how it feels to have your heart pulled out of your body with a corkscrew (please..not literally). But it seems though that, Dan Rhodes has. In Anthropology... he gives paragraph stories describing the low points and high points of love but does it in a way that feels real enough, but if it happened not only would it disturd but genuinely rattle you. Here lies the appeal. If you love and relate to relationship issues, you will see this as a mocking of all the fundementals of a break up or of love. The book loves to go back onto itself but this book is going on the theme of love, so how else can you change the plot? Not as great as "don't tell me the truth about love" but as a starter to Rhodes style of writing, this book will enlighten you in any break or support.

Sweet and deceptively simple, 19 Oct 2008
In a fashionable Murakami vein, Gold imagines an insecure lesbian holidaying alone in a remote Welsh village full of oddballs who spend most of their time in the pub. Her backstory is tenderly revealed over the novel, and it's worth sticking with the often irritating comedic tics to get to the well-judged finale, which completes the sketch of a unique, three-dimensional life.

Laugh Out Loud, 29 Jul 2008
Anyone who is attracted by the words; quirky, unusual, funny, sad and unputdownable will love this little book. A short read at just under 200 pages but I laughed out loud so many times. When tall Mr Hughes leaves the toilet with his flies undone, when the landlord decides he will make more money by being rude to his customers - I was wiping away the tears.

Each character in the story is portrayed so well, you feel such a bond to them all, and care when something happens to them - the 'feel' of a rather uninteresting, nondescript town in Pembrokeshire is so well done - there is nothing there to draw the tourist, but you will want to visit.

This is not a fast-moving plot driven book, but a story of characters and such well drawn characters too.

The story ends quite abruptly, with some sadness but I've been thinking of it still many days later. I'm definitely going to read more by Dan Rhodes

Short but packing a punch, 28 Apr 2008
This started okay for me and I didn't expect to give it more than 3 stars to be honest. However, the second half of the book was much improved and we got to know the characters a bit more. Every year, for two weeks, Miyuki leaves her lover Grindl at home and visits the same seaside village. The locals know who she is but nothing about her. This year she decides to do something different which starts a chain of events that seem to change Miyuki.

An ambiguous ending (or so I thought) leaves you to wonder a lot. This really works in this case. The characters are so stereotypical of a local pub, it's fabulous. The novel is driven by the characters rather than the plot and I can why it was a little slow to begin with as they need to be drawn out for the reader to understand. A good short novel. One worth reading but not necessarily one that would make me seek out his other work.

Gold - Genius, 25 Apr 2008
I loved this book and the all the characters in it. It is simply written, in the usual style of Dan Rhodes but beautifully so. I especially loved the character of Mr Puw who calls every woman he meets 'Thunderthighs' if she is fat or thin!

It's a feel good book about the simple things in life. If you liked this I would recommend that you read all the other Dan Rhodes books, especially Anthropology and Don't Tell Me The Truth About Love. If you like these then you may also like Magnus Mills.

Gently humorous, sharply sad., 10 Apr 2008
A gentlly humorous novel about Miyuki and her annual trip to the same Welsh seaside village out of season, where she walks, reads, and drinks beer for a fortnight before going home refreshed to her lover.
Out of season the village is sleepy and night after night the same small group of people frequent the pub - Short Mr Hughes, Tall Mr Hughes, Mr Puw and Septic Barry among them. Miyuki who's been going back for quite a few years, easily slips into place - until she feels herself compelled to do something that pushes else everyone into action.
The characters are all strongly drawn, and with that touch as in "The last of the summer wine", you can't dislike any of them with all their little obsessions and peccadilloes. As Miyuki's fortnight holiday goes on, we gradually find out more about her and them and grow to love them all which makes the twist at the end all the more of a surprise.
Highly recommended.

With this new collection of short stories, Dan Rhodes keeps as his subject the intricacies and deficiencies of desire, but his methods have changed. At some junctures he appears to be aiming for the mythopoetic tone and ominous symbolism of fairy tale--more than one of these pieces, for instance, is set in a dark, foreboding, Hansel-and-Gretel type forest. An example is the story "Painting", where an artist creates a portrait of a lady so beautiful it slays with love all who see it (uncannily like Monty Python's "funniest joke in the world", which kills with laughter all who hear it). Other stories come across as mainstream, but turn out equally pixilated: "Violoncello" evolves from a family saga in modern Vietnam to a weird fable about a boy becoming a musical instrument; "Landfill" has a prosaic face but the undertone is magical realist. Yet one of the very best stories, "The Carolingian Period", is set squarely in a very real world: academia. It tells the melancholy story of an old architecture professor in too much of a hurry, and it shows quite how moving Rhodes can be especially when he isn't turning post-modern literary tricks.

Rhodes's first collection, Anthropology, was a quiver of literary arrows: an ensemble of pointed pithy and often very poignant short stories focusing principally on the anguish and lunacy of love. As such it won much praise and attention, despite, or because of, its peculiarities of style. Don't Tell Me The Truth About Love is no less intriguing. --Sean Thomas

An easy read that will leave you wonder..., 27 Jun 2008
Life is short, and so is this book. I found it very readable because it paints life scenes with a few words, the essential ones. Relationship is the essence of our society and I believe this book has it quite close to the truth, amplified by the sometimes weird choices of tones.

Bite-sized voyage into the dark heart of relationship horror..., 26 Mar 2007
Dan Rhodes is fast becoming one of my favourite British authors, up there with Tibor Fischer and Martin Amis. This is a fine showcase of his talents. A box of bittersweet pills, this collection of stories, easy to swallow at only a paragraph long, showcase the cruel and unusual (and funny) side of relationships from a distinctly male perspective. With a touch of Raymond Queneau, it is an exercise in style within a restricted form, but it's also a bite-sized voyage into the dark heart of relationship horror, lightened by the inherent ridiculousness of a man in love. Is it postmodern? What is a pen?

Reissue of 2000's classic collection, 02 Oct 2006
I have never read anything else by this author, though I know I really should, but I can say that it's one of the best books I've read and one I return to regularly to cheer myself up and assure me everything isn't lost.

A relative of Raymond Queneau's `Exercises in Style', `Anthropology and a Hundred Other Stories' was the debut collection by Dan Rhodes, offering up 101 paragraph long stories centred on a single word. Each `story' can be read in seconds, all centre around girlfriends from a male perspective, many of them feel like variant on the same joke.

The first time I read this was on a train, I'm sure the people sitting opposite me thought there was something wrong with me as I made hysterical noises in a public place. Parts of it are as hilarious as early Martin Amis - there's one part in `Dead Babies' (haven't read it in years) that made me shudder with laughter - this book is like a one-hundred-and-one versions of that.

Some of the stories are a bit surreal and may not seem as funny as certain others, but there is no problem as you can just flip to the next one. It's all in the worst possible taste - ex-lovers humiliating people, naïve boyfriends misunderstanding sexual diseases picked up by a salesmen girlfriend, the indifferent couple who adore each other really, a death-bed lesbian tryst, a boyfriend rushing his girlfriend to hospital for fear she has terminal pneumonia and life will lose all meaning (after she coughed with symptoms of a minor cold), the girlfriend who won't let her boyfriend kiss her until they find the perfect place (Paris, the Bahamas and the Taj Mahal not being the right location), the ex-boyfriend arrested for groping his ex when they went to the cinema, and `Innocence', which is far too rude to repeat her, but invoked something like St Vitus dance in me on that train as I read it.

I guess you'd call this a micro-read, it's wonderfully crafted and concise stuff and the kind of book that makes me very jealous and I really wish I'd thought of. The bonus is that anyone could read this book, I'm sure girls would get an interesting perspective as guys would associate with the boyfriends here. I gave this book to a female friend for her birthday a few years ago, which is why this reissue is very welcome, and she found it hilarious and probably would have given me her body on the strength of it alone (though of course I'd have ended up with something like the scenario of `Open' or `Plan' here!!!). A great, great book that everyone should read - certainly a book that I re-read and can't live without...which is why I've bought it at least four times!!!




One of my favourite books, 13 Mar 2004
Blissful sums this one up. 101 stories, each 101 words long, the whole thing readable in a couple of hours but it will stay with you infinitely longer. These are very short stories about love, all told from a male perspective, and almost every one is a winner. Some make you laugh, some make you cry, but they all prove that Dan Rhodes is a fantastic writer, and this is a book to treasure.

From A to Z...brilliant stuff., 25 Jan 2004
As a 15 year old boy i know nothing about life. How a relationship should go, how people come and go through life or how it feels to have your heart pulled out of your body with a corkscrew (please..not literally). But it seems though that, Dan Rhodes has. In Anthropology... he gives paragraph stories describing the low points and high points of love but does it in a way that feels real enough, but if it happened not only would it disturd but genuinely rattle you. Here lies the appeal. If you love and relate to relationship issues, you will see this as a mocking of all the fundementals of a break up or of love. The book loves to go back onto itself but this book is going on the theme of love, so how else can you change the plot? Not as great as "don't tell me the truth about love" but as a starter to Rhodes style of writing, this book will enlighten you in any break or support.

Sweet and deceptively simple, 19 Oct 2008
In a fashionable Murakami vein, Gold imagines an insecure lesbian holidaying alone in a remote Welsh village full of oddballs who spend most of their time in the pub. Her backstory is tenderly revealed over the novel, and it's worth sticking with the often irritating comedic tics to get to the well-judged finale, which completes the sketch of a unique, three-dimensional life.

Laugh Out Loud, 29 Jul 2008
Anyone who is attracted by the words; quirky, unusual, funny, sad and unputdownable will love this little book. A short read at just under 200 pages but I laughed out loud so many times. When tall Mr Hughes leaves the toilet with his flies undone, when the landlord decides he will make more money by being rude to his customers - I was wiping away the tears.

Each character in the story is portrayed so well, you feel such a bond to them all, and care when something happens to them - the 'feel' of a rather uninteresting, nondescript town in Pembrokeshire is so well done - there is nothing there to draw the tourist, but you will want to visit.

This is not a fast-moving plot driven book, but a story of characters and such well drawn characters too.

The story ends quite abruptly, with some sadness but I've been thinking of it still many days later. I'm definitely going to read more by Dan Rhodes

Short but packing a punch, 28 Apr 2008
This started okay for me and I didn't expect to give it more than 3 stars to be honest. However, the second half of the book was much improved and we got to know the characters a bit more. Every year, for two weeks, Miyuki leaves her lover Grindl at home and visits the same seaside village. The locals know who she is but nothing about her. This year she decides to do something different which starts a chain of events that seem to change Miyuki.

An ambiguous ending (or so I thought) leaves you to wonder a lot. This really works in this case. The characters are so stereotypical of a local pub, it's fabulous. The novel is driven by the characters rather than the plot and I can why it was a little slow to begin with as they need to be drawn out for the reader to understand. A good short novel. One worth reading but not necessarily one that would make me seek out his other work.

Gold - Genius, 25 Apr 2008
I loved this book and the all the characters in it. It is simply written, in the usual style of Dan Rhodes but beautifully so. I especially loved the character of Mr Puw who calls every woman he meets 'Thunderthighs' if she is fat or thin!

It's a feel good book about the simple things in life. If you liked this I would recommend that you read all the other Dan Rhodes books, especially Anthropology and Don't Tell Me The Truth About Love. If you like these then you may also like Magnus Mills.

Gently humorous, sharply sad., 10 Apr 2008
A gentlly humorous novel about Miyuki and her annual trip to the same Welsh seaside village out of season, where she walks, reads, and drinks beer for a fortnight before going home refreshed to her lover.
Out of season the village is sleepy and night after night the same small group of people frequent the pub - Short Mr Hughes, Tall Mr Hughes, Mr Puw and Septic Barry among them. Miyuki who's been going back for quite a few years, easily slips into place - until she feels herself compelled to do something that pushes else everyone into action.
The characters are all strongly drawn, and with that touch as in "The last of the summer wine", you can't dislike any of them with all their little obsessions and peccadilloes. As Miyuki's fortnight holiday goes on, we gradually find out more about her and them and grow to love them all which makes the twist at the end all the more of a surprise.
Highly recommended.

An masterpiece of bitterness and unrequited love, 18 Oct 2003
This is a collection of dark allegories about unrequited love, the kind of longing that obliterates your identity, drives you to despair and forces you to contemplate the random horror that life sometimes is.

This is a collection of stories that dwells on the dark side of love, a side that exists but is not portrayed in fiction enough. We all know about the story about a boy meeting a girl and falling in love and everybody living happily ever after. But what about the reality 90% of the time? What about the aching longing, the desperate realisation that you just don’t measure up to the dreams of the girl of your dreams? The story Violoncello in this collection is the closest approximation to the sense of hideous realisation you get when you realise that no matter what you do, no matter how you try to change yourself, you will never, ever enter into the thoughts of that girl you like, except as a slight irritant, an annoying distraction from the bigger picture of the story that is her life.

People often complain that characters in Dan Rhodes stories are not likeable, as if you should only read a story about a character you find yourself liking. On that logic, there would be no satire, no black comedy, no horror stories, no Alan Partridge, no League of Gentlemen… The characters in this collection are pathetic, they’re fools wasting away because they can’t get their head round the idea that that girl they’re obsessed with just doesn’t care who they are, but what’s wrong with that? So in Violoncello the main character turns himself into a cello in a desperate, doomed attempt to be near the girl who is not interested in him. In the beautiful Carolingian Period the professor looks on the beautiful young woman and marvels at her beauty, but he can never go near her.

In most of these stories, the main character is usurped by others in his vain attempts to gain the affection of the girl of his dreams. In a story that will be depressingly familiar to all who have nursed a teenage crush on a classmate, the girl, sometimes bafflingly, inexplicably, chooses someone else to be the object of her affections. The main character is left as a bitter piece of flotsam, dreaming his bitter dreams and impotently raging. I have never come across such an accurate depiction of the sheer pain of rejection and unrequited love.

I recently read an interview with Dan Rhodes and in it he suggested that a sense of anger often drives him to write. And this collection should be approached with anger. It’s a catharsis, to cleanse you of the anger of modern life, the sense of injustice at a world in which everything seems wrong, and love never seems possible. It’s a great thing that the collection ends on a positive note with the story Beautiful Consuela, that suggests that true love is possible. With this story, the catharsis is complete, and you can get back to your life, secure in the knowledge that somebody somewhere understands the things you’ve been through and can express it beautifully.

This is pure gold – no question.

Just wonderful, 13 Jun 2002
Moving up from very short- 'Anthropology''s stories are only 101 words long- to just quite short, Rhodes manages to cast the same spell of opening up a private universe in the space of a few paragraphs. These stories are lovely, funny, sad, and often surprising. I was particularly fond of 'Beautiful Consuela', but each one is a little gem. Buy this immediately and put some quality back into your reading life!

Genius, 26 Feb 2001
If you only ever read one book in your lifetime, make it this one. Dan writes with more emotion in a few lines than many more recognised authors manage in 100 pages.

"Eden with bear-traps", 24 Feb 2001
Someone's already described Rhodes' idea of love as "Eden with bear-traps" and that isn't far out. He's both a cynical realist and a total romantic. Of course you can find a magician to change you into a cello, so that the girl musician who doesn't love you will hold and play you forever. But there's a catch - there always is. The message of these little fables, more or less, is "love's more trouble than it's worth but that won't stop it happening". It's like reading fairytales gone terribly wrong, and always with Rhodes' highly individual, engrossing style. Unputdownable.

You must read this book, 11 Feb 2001
If you liked Anthroplogy, then you will love this book. Each story is beautifully written and you will want to read them over and over again. Dan Rhodes has confirmed himself as one of the most important new writers of the 21st centuary.

An easy read that will leave you wonder..., 27 Jun 2008
Life is short, and so is this book. I found it very readable because it paints life scenes with a few words, the essential ones. Relationship is the essence of our society and I believe this book has it quite close to the truth, amplified by the sometimes weird choices of tones.

Bite-sized voyage into the dark heart of relationship horror..., 26 Mar 2007
Dan Rhodes is fast becoming one of my favourite British authors, up there with Tibor Fischer and Martin Amis. This is a fine showcase of his talents. A box of bittersweet pills, this collection of stories, easy to swallow at only a paragraph long, showcase the cruel and unusual (and funny) side of relationships from a distinctly male perspective. With a touch of Raymond Queneau, it is an exercise in style within a restricted form, but it's also a bite-sized voyage into the dark heart of relationship horror, lightened by the inherent ridiculousness of a man in love. Is it postmodern? What is a pen?

Reissue of 2000's classic collection, 02 Oct 2006
I have never read anything else by this author, though I know I really should, but I can say that it's one of the best books I've read and one I return to regularly to cheer myself up and assure me everything isn't lost.

A relative of Raymond Queneau's `Exercises in Style', `Anthropology and a Hundred Other Stories' was the debut collection by Dan Rhodes, offering up 101 paragraph long stories centred on a single word. Each `story' can be read in seconds, all centre around girlfriends from a male perspective, many of them feel like variant on the same joke.

The first time I read this was on a train, I'm sure the people sitting opposite me thought there was something wrong with me as I made hysterical noises in a public place. Parts of it are as hilarious as early Martin Amis - there's one part in `Dead Babies' (haven't read it in years) that made me shudder with laughter - this book is like a one-hundred-and-one versions of that.

Some of the stories are a bit surreal and may not seem as funny as certain others, but there is no problem as you can just flip to the next one. It's all in the worst possible taste - ex-lovers humiliating people, naïve boyfriends misunderstanding sexual diseases picked up by a salesmen girlfriend, the indifferent couple who adore each other really, a death-bed lesbian tryst, a boyfriend rushing his girlfriend to hospital for fear she has terminal pneumonia and life will lose all meaning (after she coughed with symptoms of a minor cold), the girlfriend who won't let her boyfriend kiss her until they find the perfect place (Paris, the Bahamas and the Taj Mahal not being the right location), the ex-boyfriend arrested for groping his ex when they went to the cinema, and `Innocence', which is far too rude to repeat her, but invoked something like St Vitus dance in me on that train as I read it.

I guess you'd call this a micro-read, it's wonderfully crafted and concise stuff and the kind of book that makes me very jealous and I really wish I'd thought of. The bonus is that anyone could read this book, I'm sure girls would get an interesting perspective as guys would associate with the boyfriends here. I gave this book to a female friend for her birthday a few years ago, which is why this reissue is very welcome, and she found it hilarious and probably would have given me her body on the strength of it alone (though of course I'd have ended up with something like the scenario of `Open' or `Plan' here!!!). A great, great book that everyone should read - certainly a book that I re-read and can't live without...which is why I've bought it at least four times!!!




One of my favourite books, 13 Mar 2004
Blissful sums this one up. 101 stories, each 101 words long, the whole thing readable in a couple of hours but it will stay with you infinitely longer. These are very short stories about love, all told from a male perspective, and almost every one is a winner. Some make you laugh, some make you cry, but they all prove that Dan Rhodes is a fantastic writer, and this is a book to treasure.

From A to Z...brilliant stuff., 25 Jan 2004
As a 15 year old boy i know nothing about life. How a relationship should go, how people come and go through life or how it feels to have your heart pulled out of your body with a corkscrew (please..not literally). But it seems though that, Dan Rhodes has. In Anthropology... he gives paragraph stories describing the low points and high points of love but does it in a way that feels real enough, but if it happened not only would it disturd but genuinely rattle you. Here lies the appeal. If you love and relate to relationship issues, you will see this as a mocking of all the fundementals of a break up or of love. The book loves to go back onto itself but this book is going on the theme of love, so how else can you change the plot? Not as great as "don't tell me the truth about love" but as a starter to Rhodes style of writing, this book will enlighten you in any break or support.

Sweet and deceptively simple, 19 Oct 2008
In a fashionable Murakami vein, Gold imagines an insecure lesbian holidaying alone in a remote Welsh village full of oddballs who spend most of their time in the pub. Her backstory is tenderly revealed over the novel, and it's worth sticking with the often irritating comedic tics to get to the well-judged finale, which completes the sketch of a unique, three-dimensional life.

Laugh Out Loud, 29 Jul 2008
Anyone who is attracted by the words; quirky, unusual, funny, sad and unputdownable will love this little book. A short read at just under 200 pages but I laughed out loud so many times. When tall Mr Hughes leaves the toilet with his flies undone, when the landlord decides he will make more money by being rude to his customers - I was wiping away the tears.

Each character in the story is portrayed so well, you feel such a bond to them all, and care when something happens to them - the 'feel' of a rather uninteresting, nondescript town in Pembrokeshire is so well done - there is nothing there to draw the tourist, but you will want to visit.

This is not a fast-moving plot driven book, but a story of characters and such well drawn characters too.

The story ends quite abruptly, with some sadness but I've been thinking of it still many days later. I'm definitely going to read more by Dan Rhodes

Short but packing a punch, 28 Apr 2008
This started okay for me and I didn't expect to give it more than 3 stars to be honest. However, the second half of the book was much improved and we got to know the characters a bit more. Every year, for two weeks, Miyuki leaves her lover Grindl at home and visits the same seaside village. The locals know who she is but nothing about her. This year she decides to do something different which starts a chain of events that seem to change Miyuki.

An ambiguous ending (or so I thought) leaves you to wonder a lot. This really works in this case. The characters are so stereotypical of a local pub, it's fabulous. The novel is driven by the characters rather than the plot and I can why it was a little slow to begin with as they need to be drawn out for the reader to understand. A good short novel. One worth reading but not necessarily one that would make me seek out his other work.

Gold - Genius, 25 Apr 2008
I loved this book and the all the characters in it. It is simply written, in the usual style of Dan Rhodes but beautifully so. I especially loved the character of Mr Puw who calls every woman he meets 'Thunderthighs' if she is fat or thin!

It's a feel good book about the simple things in life. If you liked this I would recommend that you read all the other Dan Rhodes books, especially Anthropology and Don't Tell Me The Truth About Love. If you like these then you may also like Magnus Mills.

Gently humorous, sharply sad., 10 Apr 2008
A gentlly humorous novel about Miyuki and her annual trip to the same Welsh seaside village out of season, where she walks, reads, and drinks beer for a fortnight before going home refreshed to her lover.
Out of season the village is sleepy and night after night the same small group of people frequent the pub - Short Mr Hughes, Tall Mr Hughes, Mr Puw and Septic Barry among them. Miyuki who's been going back for quite a few years, easily slips into place - until she feels herself compelled to do something that pushes else everyone into action.
The characters are all strongly drawn, and with that touch as in "The last of the summer wine", you can't dislike any of them with all their little obsessions and peccadilloes. As Miyuki's fortnight holiday goes on, we gradually find out more about her and them and grow to love them all which makes the twist at the end all the more of a surprise.
Highly recommended.

An masterpiece of bitterness and unrequited love, 18 Oct 2003
This is a collection of dark allegories about unrequited love, the kind of longing that obliterates your identity, drives you to despair and forces you to contemplate the random horror that life sometimes is.

This is a collection of stories that dwells on the dark side of love, a side that exists but is not portrayed in fiction enough. We all know about the story about a boy meeting a girl and falling in love and everybody living happily ever after. But what about the reality 90% of the time? What about the aching longing, the desperate realisation that you just don’t measure up to the dreams of the girl of your dreams? The story Violoncello in this collection is the closest approximation to the sense of hideous realisation you get when you realise that no matter what you do, no matter how you try to change yourself, you will never, ever enter into the thoughts of that girl you like, except as a slight irritant, an annoying distraction from the bigger picture of the story that is her life.

People often complain that characters in Dan Rhodes stories are not likeable, as if you should only read a story about a character you find yourself liking. On that logic, there would be no satire, no black comedy, no horror stories, no Alan Partridge, no League of Gentlemen… The characters in this collection are pathetic, they’re fools wasting away because they can’t get their head round the idea that that girl they’re obsessed with just doesn’t care who they are, but what’s wrong with that? So in Violoncello the main character turns himself into a cello in a desperate, doomed attempt to be near the girl who is not interested in him. In the beautiful Carolingian Period the professor looks on the beautiful young woman and marvels at her beauty, but he can never go near her.

In most of these stories, the main character is usurped by others in his vain attempts to gain the affection of the girl of his dreams. In a story that will be depressingly familiar to all who have nursed a teenage crush on a classmate, the girl, sometimes bafflingly, inexplicably, chooses someone else to be the object of her affections. The main character is left as a bitter piece of flotsam, dreaming his bitter dreams and impotently raging. I have never come across such an accurate depiction of the sheer pain of rejection and unrequited love.

I recently read an interview with Dan Rhodes and in it he suggested that a sense of anger often drives him to write. And this collection should be approached with anger. It’s a catharsis, to cleanse you of the anger of modern life, the sense of injustice at a world in which everything seems wrong, and love never seems possible. It’s a great thing that the collection ends on a positive note with the story Beautiful Consuela, that suggests that true love is possible. With this story, the catharsis is complete, and you can get back to your life, secure in the knowledge that somebody somewhere understands the things you’ve been through and can express it beautifully.

This is pure gold – no question.

Just wonderful, 13 Jun 2002
Moving up from very short- 'Anthropology''s stories are only 101 words long- to just quite short, Rhodes manages to cast the same spell of opening up a private universe in the space of a few paragraphs. These stories are lovely, funny, sad, and often surprising. I was particularly fond of 'Beautiful Consuela', but each one is a little gem. Buy this immediately and put some quality back into your reading life!

Genius, 26 Feb 2001
If you only ever read one book in your lifetime, make it this one. Dan writes with more emotion in a few lines than many more recognised authors manage in 100 pages.

"Eden with bear-traps", 24 Feb 2001
Someone's already described Rhodes' idea of love as "Eden with bear-traps" and that isn't far out. He's both a cynical realist and a total romantic. Of course you can find a magician to change you into a cello, so that the girl musician who doesn't love you will hold and play you forever. But there's a catch - there always is. The message of these little fables, more or less, is "love's more trouble than it's worth but that won't stop it happening". It's like reading fairytales gone terribly wrong, and always with Rhodes' highly individual, engrossing style. Unputdownable.

You must read this book, 11 Feb 2001
If you liked Anthroplogy, then you will love this book. Each story is beautifully written and you will want to read them over and over again. Dan Rhodes has confirmed himself as one of the most important new writers of the 21st centuary.

Sweet and deceptively simple, 19 Oct 2008
In a fashionable Murakami vein, Gold imagines an insecure lesbian holidaying alone in a remote Welsh village full of oddballs who spend most of their time in the pub. Her backstory is tenderly revealed over the novel, and it's worth sticking with the often irritating comedic tics to get to the well-judged finale, which completes the sketch of a unique, three-dimensional life.

Laugh Out Loud, 29 Jul 2008
Anyone who is attracted by the words; quirky, unusual, funny, sad and unputdownable will love this little book. A short read at just under 200 pages but I laughed out loud so many times. When tall Mr Hughes leaves the toilet with his flies undone, when the landlord decides he will make more money by being rude to his customers - I was wiping away the tears.

Each character in the story is portrayed so well, you feel such a bond to them all, and care when something happens to them - the 'feel' of a rather uninteresting, nondescript town in Pembrokeshire is so well done - there is nothing there to draw the tourist, but you will want to visit.

This is not a fast-moving plot driven book, but a story of characters and such well drawn characters too.

The story ends quite abruptly, with some sadness but I've been thinking of it still many days later. I'm definitely going to read more by Dan Rhodes

Short but packing a punch, 28 Apr 2008
This started okay for me and I didn't expect to give it more than 3 stars to be honest. However, the second half of the book was much improved and we got to know the characters a bit more. Every year, for two weeks, Miyuki leaves her lover Grindl at home and visits the same seaside village. The locals know who she is but nothing about her. This year she decides to do something different which starts a chain of events that seem to change Miyuki.

An ambiguous ending (or so I thought) leaves you to wonder a lot. This really works in this case. The characters are so stereotypical of a local pub, it's fabulous. The novel is driven by the characters rather than the plot and I can why it was a little slow to begin with as they need to be drawn out for the reader to understand. A good short novel. One worth reading but not necessarily one that would make me seek out his other work.

Gold - Genius, 25 Apr 2008
I loved this book and the all the characters in it. It is simply written, in the usual style of Dan Rhodes but beautifully so. I especially loved the character of Mr Puw who calls every woman he meets 'Thunderthighs' if she is fat or thin!

It's a feel good book about the simple things in life. If you liked this I would recommend that you read all the other Dan Rhodes books, especially Anthropology and Don't Tell Me The Truth About Love. If you like these then you may also like Magnus Mills.

Gently humorous, sharply sad., 10 Apr 2008
A gentlly humorous novel about Miyuki and her annual trip to the same Welsh seaside village out of season, where she walks, reads, and drinks beer for a fortnight before going home refreshed to her lover.
Out of season the village is sleepy and night after night the same small group of people frequent the pub - Short Mr Hughes, Tall Mr Hughes, Mr Puw and Septic Barry among them. Miyuki who's been going back for quite a few years, easily slips into place - until she feels herself compelled to do something that pushes else everyone into action.
The characters are all strongly drawn, and with that touch as in "The last of the summer wine", you can't dislike any of them with all their little obsessions and peccadilloes. As Miyuki's fortnight holiday goes on, we gradually find out more about her and them and grow to love them all which makes the twist at the end all the more of a surprise.
Highly recommended.

An easy read that will leave you wonder..., 27 Jun 2008
Life is short, and so is this book. I found it very readable because it paints life scenes with a few words, the essential ones. Relationship is the essence of our society and I believe this book has it quite close to the truth, amplified by the sometimes weird choices of tones.

Bite-sized voyage into the dark heart of relationship horror..., 26 Mar 2007
Dan Rhodes is fast becoming one of my favourite British authors, up there with Tibor Fischer and Martin Amis. This is a fine showcase of his talents. A box of bittersweet pills, this collection of stories, easy to swallow at only a paragraph long, showcase the cruel and unusual (and funny) side of relationships from a distinctly male perspective. With a touch of Raymond Queneau, it is an exercise in style within a restricted form, but it's also a bite-sized voyage into the dark heart of relationship horror, lightened by the inherent ridiculousness of a man in love. Is it postmodern? What is a pen?

Reissue of 2000's classic collection, 02 Oct 2006
I have never read anything else by this author, though I know I really should, but I can say that it's one of the best books I've read and one I return to regularly to cheer myself up and assure me everything isn't lost.

A relative of Raymond Queneau's `Exercises in Style', `Anthropology and a Hundred Other Stories' was the debut collection by Dan Rhodes, offering up 101 paragraph long stories centred on a single word. Each `story' can be read in seconds, all centre around girlfriends from a male perspective, many of them feel like variant on the same joke.

The first time I read this was on a train, I'm sure the people sitting opposite me thought there was something wrong with me as I made hysterical noises in a public place. Parts of it are as hilarious as early Martin Amis - there's one part in `Dead Babies' (haven't read it in years) that made me shudder with laughter - this book is like a one-hundred-and-one versions of that.

Some of the stories are a bit surreal and may not seem as funny as certain others, but there is no problem as you can just flip to the next one. It's all in the worst possible taste - ex-lovers humiliating people, naïve boyfriends misunderstanding sexual diseases picked up by a salesmen girlfriend, the indifferent couple who adore each other really, a death-bed lesbian tryst, a boyfriend rushing his girlfriend to hospital for fear she has terminal pneumonia and life will lose all meaning (after she coughed with symptoms of a minor cold), the girlfriend who won't let her boyfriend kiss her until they find the perfect place (Paris, the Bahamas and the Taj Mahal not being the right location), the ex-boyfriend arrested for groping his ex when they went to the cinema, and `Innocence', which is far too rude to repeat her, but invoked something like St Vitus dance in me on that train as I read it.

I guess you'd call this a micro-read, it's wonderfully crafted and concise stuff and the kind of book that makes me very jealous and I really wish I'd thought of. The bonus is that anyone could read this book, I'm sure girls would get an interesting perspective as guys would associate with the boyfriends here. I gave this book to a female friend for her birthday a few years ago, which is why this reissue is very welcome, and she found it hilarious and probably would have given me her body on the strength of it alone (though of course I'd have ended up with something like the scenario of `Open' or `Plan' here!!!). A great, great book that everyone should read - certainly a book that I re-read and can't live without...which is why I've bought it at least four times!!!




One of my favourite books, 13 Mar 2004
Blissful sums this one up. 101 stories, each 101 words long, the whole thing readable in a couple of hours but it will stay with you infinitely longer. These are very short stories about love, all told from a male perspective, and almost every one is a winner. Some make you laugh, some make you cry, but they all prove that Dan Rhodes is a fantastic writer, and this is a book to treasure.

From A to Z...brilliant stuff., 25 Jan 2004
As a 15 year old boy i know nothing about life. How a relationship should go, how people come and go through life or how it feels to have your heart pulled out of your body with a corkscrew (please..not literally). But it seems though that, Dan Rhodes has. In Anthropology... he gives paragraph stories describing the low points and high points of love but does it in a way that feels real enough, but if it happened not only would it disturd but genuinely rattle you. Here lies the appeal. If you love and relate to relationship issues, you will see this as a mocking of all the fundementals of a break up or of love. The book loves to go back onto itself but this book is going on the theme of love, so how else can you change the plot? Not as great as "don't tell me the truth about love" but as a starter to Rhodes style of writing, this book will enlighten you in any break or support.

Sweet and deceptively simple, 19 Oct 2008
In a fashionable Murakami vein, Gold imagines an insecure lesbian holidaying alone in a remote Welsh village full of oddballs who spend most of their time in the pub. Her backstory is tenderly revealed over the novel, and it's worth sticking with the often irritating comedic tics to get to the well-judged finale, which completes the sketch of a unique, three-dimensional life.

Laugh Out Loud, 29 Jul 2008
Anyone who is attracted by the words; quirky, unusual, funny, sad and unputdownable will love this little book. A short read at just under 200 pages but I laughed out loud so many times. When tall Mr Hughes leaves the toilet with his flies undone, when the landlord decides he will make more money by being rude to his customers - I was wiping away the tears.

Each character in the story is portrayed so well, you feel such a bond to them all, and care when something happens to them - the 'feel' of a rather uninteresting, nondescript town in Pembrokeshire is so well done - there is nothing there to draw the tourist, but you will want to visit.

This is not a fast-moving plot driven book, but a story of characters and such well drawn characters too.

The story ends quite abruptly, with some sadness but I've been thinking of it still many days later. I'm definitely going to read more by Dan Rhodes

Short but packing a punch, 28 Apr 2008
This started okay for me and I didn't expect to give it more than 3 stars to be honest. However, the second half of the book was much improved and we got to know the characters a bit more. Every year, for two weeks, Miyuki leaves her lover Grindl at home and visits the same seaside village. The locals know who she is but nothing about her. This year she decides to do something different which starts a chain of events that seem to change Miyuki.

An ambiguous ending (or so I thought) leaves you to wonder a lot. This really works in this case. The characters are so stereotypical of a local pub, it's fabulous. The novel is driven by the characters rather than the plot and I can why it was a little slow to begin with as they need to be drawn out for the reader to understand. A good short novel. One worth reading but not necessarily one that would make me seek out his other work.

Gold - Genius, 25 Apr 2008
I loved this book and the all the characters in it. It is simply written, in the usual style of Dan Rhodes but beautifully so. I especially loved the character of Mr Puw who calls every woman he meets 'Thunderthighs' if she is fat or thin!

It's a feel good book about the simple things in life. If you liked this I would recommend that you read all the other Dan Rhodes books, especially Anthropology and Don't Tell Me The Truth About Love. If you like these then you may also like Magnus Mills.

Gently humorous, sharply sad., 10 Apr 2008
A gentlly humorous novel about Miyuki and her annual trip to the same Welsh seaside village out of season, where she walks, reads, and drinks beer for a fortnight before going home refreshed to her lover.
Out of season the village is sleepy and night after night the same small group of people frequent the pub - Short Mr Hughes, Tall Mr Hughes, Mr Puw and Septic Barry among them. Miyuki who's been going back for quite a few years, easily slips into place - until she feels herself compelled to do something that pushes else everyone into action.
The characters are all strongly drawn, and with that touch as in "The last of the summer wine", you can't dislike any of them with all their little obsessions and peccadilloes. As Miyuki's fortnight holiday goes on, we gradually find out more about her and them and grow to love them all which makes the twist at the end all the more of a surprise.
Highly recommended.

An masterpiece of bitterness and unrequited love, 18 Oct 2003
This is a collection of dark allegories about unrequited love, the kind of longing that obliterates your identity, drives you to despair and forces you to contemplate the random horror that life sometimes is.

This is a collection of stories that dwells on the dark side of love, a side that exists but is not portrayed in fiction enough. We all know about the story about a boy meeting a girl and falling in love and everybody living happily ever after. But what about the reality 90% of the time? What about the aching longing, the desperate realisation that you just don’t measure up to the dreams of the girl of your dreams? The story Violoncello in this collection is the closest approximation to the sense of hideous realisation you get when you realise that no matter what you do, no matter how you try to change yourself, you will never, ever enter into the thoughts of that girl you like, except as a slight irritant, an annoying distraction from the bigger picture of the story that is her life.

People often complain that characters in Dan Rhodes stories are not likeable, as if you should only read a story about a character you find yourself liking. On that logic, there would be no satire, no black comedy, no horror stories, no Alan Partridge, no League of Gentlemen… The characters in this collection are pathetic, they’re fools wasting away because they can’t get their head round the idea that that girl they’re obsessed with just doesn’t care who they are, but what’s wrong with that? So in Violoncello the main character turns himself into a cello in a desperate, doomed attempt to be near the girl who is not interested in him. In the beautiful Carolingian Period the professor looks on the beautiful young woman and marvels at her beauty, but he can never go near her.

In most of these stories, the main character is usurped by others in his vain attempts to gain the affection of the girl of his dreams. In a story that will be depressingly familiar to all who have nursed a teenage crush on a classmate, the girl, sometimes bafflingly, inexplicably, chooses someone else to be the object of her affections. The main character is left as a bitter piece of flotsam, dreaming his bitter dreams and impotently raging. I have never come across such an accurate depiction of the sheer pain of rejection and unrequited love.

I recently read an interview with Dan Rhodes and in it he suggested that a sense of anger often drives him to write. And this collection should be approached with anger. It’s a catharsis, to cleanse you of the anger of modern life, the sense of injustice at a world in which everything seems wrong, and love never seems possible. It’s a great thing that the collection ends on a positive note with the story Beautiful Consuela, that suggests that true love is possible. With this story, the catharsis is complete, and you can get back to your life, secure in the knowledge that somebody somewhere understands the things you’ve been through and can express it beautifully.

This is pure gold – no question.

Just wonderful, 13 Jun 2002
Moving up from very short- 'Anthropology''s stories are only 101 words long- to just quite short, Rhodes manages to cast the same spell of opening up a private universe in the space of a few paragraphs. These stories are lovely, funny, sad, and often surprising. I was particularly fond of 'Beautiful Consuela', but each one is a little gem. Buy this immediately and put some quality back into your reading life!

Genius, 26 Feb 2001
If you only ever read one book in your lifetime, make it this one. Dan writes with more emotion in a few lines than many more recognised authors manage in 100 pages.

"Eden with bear-traps", 24 Feb 2001
Someone's already described Rhodes' idea of love as "Eden with bear-traps" and that isn't far out. He's both a cynical realist and a total romantic. Of course you can find a magician to change you into a cello, so that the girl musician who doesn't love you will hold and play you forever. But there's a catch - there always is. The message of these little fables, more or less, is "love's more trouble than it's worth but that won't stop it happening". It's like reading fairytales gone terribly wrong, and always with Rhodes' highly individual, engrossing style. Unputdownable.

You must read this book, 11 Feb 2001
If you liked Anthroplogy, then you will love this book. Each story is beautifully written and you will want to read them over and over again. Dan Rhodes has confirmed himself as one of the most important new writers of the 21st centuary.

Sweet and deceptively simple, 19 Oct 2008
In a fashionable Murakami vein, Gold imagines an insecure lesbian holidaying alone in a remote Welsh village full of oddballs who spend most of their time in the pub. Her backstory is tenderly revealed over the novel, and it's worth sticking with the often irritating comedic tics to get to the well-judged finale, which completes the sketch of a unique, three-dimensional life.

Laugh Out Loud, 29 Jul 2008
Anyone who is attracted by the words; quirky, unusual, funny, sad and unputdownable will love this little book. A short read at just under 200 pages but I laughed out loud so many times. When tall Mr Hughes leaves the toilet with his flies undone, when the landlord decides he will make more money by being rude to his customers - I was wiping away the tears.

Each character in the story is portrayed so well, you feel such a bond to them all, and care when something happens to them - the 'feel' of a rather uninteresting, nondescript town in Pembrokeshire is so well done - there is nothing there to draw the tourist, but you will want to visit.

This is not a fast-moving plot driven book, but a story of characters and such well drawn characters too.

The story ends quite abruptly, with some sadness but I've been thinking of it still many days later. I'm definitely going to read more by Dan Rhodes

Short but packing a punch, 28 Apr 2008
This started okay for me and I didn't expect to give it more than 3 stars to be honest. However, the second half of the book was much improved and we got to know the characters a bit more. Every year, for two weeks, Miyuki leaves her lover Grindl at home and visits the same seaside village. The locals know who she is but nothing about her. This year she decides to do something different which starts a chain of events that seem to change Miyuki.

An ambiguous ending (or so I thought) leaves you to wonder a lot. This really works in this case. The characters are so stereotypical of a local pub, it's fabulous. The novel is driven by the characters rather than the plot and I can why it was a little slow to begin with as they need to be drawn out for the reader to understand. A good short novel. One worth reading but not necessarily one that would make me seek out his other work.

Gold - Genius, 25 Apr 2008
I loved this book and the all the characters in it. It is simply written, in the usual style of Dan Rhodes but beautifully so. I especially loved the character of Mr Puw who calls every woman he meets 'Thunderthighs' if she is fat or thin!

It's a feel good book about the simple things in life. If you liked this I would recommend that you read all the other Dan Rhodes books, especially Anthropology and Don't Tell Me The Truth About Love. If you like these then you may also like Magnus Mills.

Gently humorous, sharply sad., 10 Apr 2008
A gentlly humorous novel about Miyuki and her annual trip to the same Welsh seaside village out of season, where she walks, reads, and drinks beer for a fortnight before going home refreshed to her lover.
Out of season the village is sleepy and night after night the same small group of people frequent the pub - Short Mr Hughes, Tall Mr Hughes, Mr Puw and Septic Barry among them. Miyuki who's been going back for quite a few years, easily slips into place - until she feels herself compelled to do something that pushes else everyone into action.
The characters are all strongly drawn, and with that touch as in "The last of the summer wine", you can't dislike any of them with all their little obsessions and peccadilloes. As Miyuki's fortnight holiday goes on, we gradually find out more about her and them and grow to love them all which makes the twist at the end all the more of a surprise.
Highly recommended.

Less than one star, 15 Jul 2006
One of the most pointless stories I've ever read.
I found it hard to get into as the story lacked any 'meatiness' that helps readers get deep into a story.
I found Rhodes' had just skimmed over the story, not giving much insight into each character. She couldn't be bothered to build up a character so she just added in random extracts where it looked like she'd added some depth to a character, but didn't even make sense. For example, one part where a delivery man (or whoever he was) enters for two seconds, then suddenly it hints that he has some undying love for her and she will never be his, and then he leaves. What the?
Also, for me it was painful to witness Rhodes' try-hard attempt to be witty. Her humour was very familiar and I felt I'd heard it somewhere before, and therefore didn't amuse me.
Waste of money...

I recommend Starter for Ten by David Nicholls. THAT IS HILLARIOUS!

a good laugh suitably sized for a suitcase, 06 Sep 2005
This is perfect for a bubblegum read in the sun - the laughable story line does nothing to detract from the enjoyment of this book.
There is an undercurrent of cynicism, could call it realism I guess, underpinning the characters, the chipped and bent motivations and behaviour are painfully familiar, even a 'happy' ending can't save this lot. For me this lifts the little white car above the usual drossy chick lit it's parodying.
It's undoubtably from the hand of Dan Rhodes - if you liked the other stuff you'll love this.

Bob's your oncle!, 02 Aug 2004
Well I think it's safe to say that this book was written by Dan Rhodes, and is the funniest book I have read in years. The completely implausible plot is spoofing all the naff chicklit that has terrorised us over the past few years, but at the same time is totally charming and warm. The characters are brilliant, especially enjoying Estelle who for some obscure reason is studying welsh poetry; the doctor who can dance, and Clement who almost has an episode with the dog bowl. It's only a short bookso I won't say any more about it - just read it (and if you haven't read Timoleon Vieta Come Home yet then buy that whilst you are on here), and don't take it too seriously!

'The Little White Car', 17 Jul 2004
'The Little White Car' has had some very bad press, but I think it is unfair. I thoroughly enjoyed this crazy tale, set in France. A perfect holiday read that you can get through in an afternoon, preferably in the sunshine somewhere!
Rumour has it that the author, Danuta de Rhodes is really Dan Rhodes, previous author of some books that I have read but did not enjoy too much. If it really is the same person, then he/she has changed style for the better.

Disappointing, 15 Jul 2004
I found this to be a cross between 'Vernon God Little' and 'Catcher in the Rye' and sadly I'm a fan of neither. The idea itself made you give a lot of thought to what did actually happen on the night Princess Diana was killed, but apart from that the book did nothing for me.

An easy read that will leave you wonder..., 27 Jun 2008
Life is short, and so is this book. I found it very readable because it paints life scenes with a few words, the essential ones. Relationship is the essence of our society and I believe this book has it quite close to the truth, amplified by the sometimes weird choices of tones.

Bite-sized voyage into the dark heart of relationship horror..., 26 Mar 2007
Dan Rhodes is fast becoming one of my favourite British authors, up there with Tibor Fischer and Martin Amis. This is a fine showcase of his talents. A box of bittersweet pills, this collection of stories, easy to swallow at only a paragraph long, showcase the cruel and unusual (and funny) side of relationships from a distinctly male perspective. With a touch of Raymond Queneau, it is an exercise in style within a restricted form, but it's also a bite-sized voyage into the dark heart of relationship horror, lightened by the inherent ridiculousness of a man in love. Is it postmodern? What is a pen?

Reissue of 2000's classic collection, 02 Oct 2006
I have never read anything else by this author, though I know I really should, but I can say that it's one of the best books I've read and one I return to regularly to cheer myself up and assure me everything isn't lost.

A relative of Raymond Queneau's `Exercises in Style', `Anthropology and a Hundred Other Stories' was the debut collection by Dan Rhodes, offering up 101 paragraph long stories centred on a single word. Each `story' can be read in seconds, all centre around girlfriends from a male perspective, many of them feel like variant on the same joke.

The first time I read this was on a train, I'm sure the people sitting opposite me thought there was something wrong with me as I made hysterical noises in a public place. Parts of it are as hilarious as early Martin Amis - there's one part in `Dead Babies' (haven't read it in years) that made me shudder with laughter - this book is like a one-hundred-and-one versions of that.

Some of the stories are a bit surreal and may not seem as funny as certain others, but there is no problem as you can just flip to the next one. It's all in the worst possible taste - ex-lovers humiliating people, naïve boyfriends misunderstanding sexual diseases picked up by a salesmen girlfriend, the indifferent couple who adore each other really, a death-bed lesbian tryst, a boyfriend rushing his girlfriend to hospital for fear she has terminal pneumonia and life will lose all meaning (after she coughed with symptoms of a minor cold), the girlfriend who won't let her boyfriend kiss her until they find the perfect place (Paris, the Bahamas and the Taj Mahal not being the right location), the ex-boyfriend arrested for groping his ex when they went to the cinema, and `Innocence', which is far too rude to repeat her, but invoked something like St Vitus dance in me on that train as I read it.

I guess you'd call this a micro-read, it's wonderfully crafted and concise stuff and the kind of book that makes me very jealous and I really wish I'd thought of. The bonus is that anyone could read this book, I'm sure girls would get an interesting perspective as guys would associate with the boyfriends here. I gave this book to a female friend for her birthday a few years ago, which is why this reissue is very welcome, and she found it hilarious and probably would have given me her body on the strength of it alone (though of course I'd have ended up with something like the scenario of `Open' or `Plan' here!!!). A great, great book that everyone should read - certainly a book that I re-read and can't live without...which is why I've bought it at least four times!!!




One of my favourite books, 13 Mar 2004
Blissful sums this one up. 101 stories, each 101 words long, the whole thing readable in a couple of hours but it will stay with you infinitely longer. These are very short stories about love, all told from a male perspective, and almost every one is a winner. Some make you laugh, some make you cry, but they all prove that Dan Rhodes is a fantastic writer, and this is a book to treasure.

From A to Z...brilliant stuff., 25 Jan 2004
As a 15 year old boy i know nothing about life. How a relationship should go, how people come and go through life or how it feels to have your heart pulled out of your body with a corkscrew (please..not literally). But it seems though that, Dan Rhodes has. In Anthropology... he gives paragraph stories describing the low points and high points of love but does it in a way that feels real enough, but if it happened not only would it disturd but genuinely rattle you. Here lies the appeal. If you love and relate to relationship issues, you will see this as a mocking of all the fundementals of a break up or of love. The book loves to go back onto itself but this book is going on the theme of love, so how else can you change the plot? Not as great as "don't tell me the truth about love" but as a starter to Rhodes style of writing, this book will enlighten you in any break or support.

Sweet and deceptively simple, 19 Oct 2008
In a fashionable Murakami vein, Gold imagines an insecure lesbian holidaying alone in a remote Welsh village full of oddballs who spend most of their time in the pub. Her backstory is tenderly revealed over the novel, and it's worth sticking with the often irritating comedic tics to get to the well-judged finale, which completes the sketch of a unique, three-dimensional life.

Laugh Out Loud, 29 Jul 2008
Anyone who is attracted by the words; quirky, unusual, funny, sad and unputdownable will love this little book. A short read at just under 200 pages but I laughed out loud so many times. When tall Mr Hughes leaves the toilet with his flies undone, when the landlord decides he will make more money by being rude to his customers - I was wiping away the tears.

Each character in the story is portrayed so well, you feel such a bond to them all, and care when something happens to them - the 'feel' of a rather uninteresting, nondescript town in Pembrokeshire is so well done - there is nothing there to draw the tourist, but you will want to visit.

This is not a fast-moving plot driven book, but a story of characters and such well drawn characters too.

The story ends quite abruptly, with some sadness but I've been thinking of it still many days later. I'm definitely going to read more by Dan Rhodes

Short but packing a punch, 28 Apr 2008
This started okay for me and I didn't expect to give it more than 3 stars to be honest. However, the second half of the book was much improved and we got to know the characters a bit more. Every year, for two weeks, Miyuki leaves her lover Grindl at home and visits the same seaside village. The locals know who she is but nothing about her. This year she decides to do something different which starts a chain of events that seem to change Miyuki.

An ambiguous ending (or so I thought) leaves you to wonder a lot. This really works in this case. The characters are so stereotypical of a local pub, it's fabulous. The novel is driven by the characters rather than the plot and I can why it was a little slow to begin with as they need to be drawn out for the reader to understand. A good short novel. One worth reading but not necessarily one that would make me seek out his other work.

Gold - Genius, 25 Apr 2008
I loved this book and the all the characters in it. It is simply written, in the usual style of Dan Rhodes but beautifully so. I especially loved the character of Mr Puw who calls every woman he meets 'Thunderthighs' if she is fat or thin!

It's a feel good book about the simple things in life. If you liked this I would recommend that you read all the other Dan Rhodes books, especially Anthropology and Don't Tell Me The Truth About Love. If you like these then you may also like Magnus Mills.

Gently humorous, sharply sad., 10 Apr 2008
A gentlly humorous novel about Miyuki and her annual trip to the same Welsh seaside village out of season, where she walks, reads, and drinks beer for a fortnight before going home refreshed to her lover.
Out of season the village is sleepy and night after night the same small group of people frequent the pub - Short Mr Hughes, Tall Mr Hughes, Mr Puw and Septic Barry among them. Miyuki who's been going back for quite a few years, easily slips into place - until she feels herself compelled to do something that pushes else everyone into action.
The characters are all strongly drawn, and with that touch as in "The last of the summer wine", you can't dislike any of them with all their little obsessions and peccadilloes. As Miyuki's fortnight holiday goes on, we gradually find out more about her and them and grow to love them all which makes the twist at the end all the more of a surprise.
Highly recommended.

An masterpiece of bitterness and unrequited love, 18 Oct 2003
This is a collection of dark allegories about unrequited love, the kind of longing that obliterates your identity, drives you to despair and forces you to contemplate the random horror that life sometimes is.

This is a collection of stories that dwells on the dark side of love, a side that exists but is not portrayed in fiction enough. We all know about the story about a boy meeting a girl and falling in love and everybody living happily ever after. But what about the reality 90% of the time? What about the aching longing, the desperate realisation that you just don’t measure up to the dreams of the girl of your dreams? The story Violoncello in this collection is the closest approximation to the sense of hideous realisation you get when you realise that no matter what you do, no matter how you try to change yourself, you will never, ever enter into the thoughts of that girl you like, except as a slight irritant, an annoying distraction from the bigger picture of the story that is her life.

People often complain that characters in Dan Rhodes stories are not likeable, as if you should only read a story about a character you find yourself liking. On that logic, there would be no satire, no black comedy, no horror stories, no Alan Partridge, no League of Gentlemen… The characters in this collection are pathetic, they’re fools wasting away because they can’t get their head round the idea that that girl they’re obsessed with just doesn’t care who they are, but what’s wrong with that? So in Violoncello the main character turns himself into a cello in a desperate, doomed attempt to be near the girl who is not interested in him. In the beautiful Carolingian Period the professor looks on the beautiful young woman and marvels at her beauty, but he can never go near her.

In most of these stories, the main character is usurped by others in his vain attempts to gain the affection of the girl of his dreams. In a story that will be depressingly familiar to all who have nursed a teenage crush on a classmate, the girl, sometimes bafflingly, inexplicably, chooses someone else to be the object of her affections. The main character is left as a bitter piece of flotsam, dreaming his bitter dreams and impotently raging. I have never come across such an accurate depiction of the sheer pain of rejection and unrequited love.

I recently read an interview with Dan Rhodes and in it he suggested that a sense of anger often drives him to write. And this collection should be approached with anger. It’s a catharsis, to cleanse you of the anger of modern life, the sense of injustice at a world in which everything seems wrong, and love never seems possible. It’s a great thing that the collection ends on a positive note with the story Beautiful Consuela, that suggests that true love is possible. With this story, the catharsis is complete, and you can get back to your life, secure in the knowledge that somebody somewhere understands the things you’ve been through and can express it beautifully.

This is pure gold – no question.

Just wonderful, 13 Jun 2002
Moving up from very short- 'Anthropology''s stories are only 101 words long- to just quite short, Rhodes manages to cast the same spell of opening up a private universe in the space of a few paragraphs. These stories are lovely, funny, sad, and often surprising. I was particularly fond of 'Beautiful Consuela', but each one is a little gem. Buy this immediately and put some quality back into your reading life!

Genius, 26 Feb 2001
If you only ever read one book in your lifetime, make it this one. Dan writes with more emotion in a few lines than many more recognised authors manage in 100 pages.

"Eden with bear-traps", 24 Feb 2001
Someone's already described Rhodes' idea of love as "Eden with bear-traps" and that isn't far out. He's both a cynical realist and a total romantic. Of course you can find a magician to change you into a cello, so that the girl musician who doesn't love you will hold and play you forever. But there's a catch - there always is. The message of these little fables, more or less, is "love's more trouble than it's worth but that won't stop it happening". It's like reading fairytales gone terribly wrong, and always with Rhodes' highly individual, engrossing style. Unputdownable.

You must read this book, 11 Feb 2001
If you liked Anthroplogy, then you will love this book. Each story is beautifully written and you will want to read them over and over again. Dan Rhodes has confirmed himself as one of the most important new writers of the 21st centuary.

Sweet and deceptively simple, 19 Oct 2008
In a fashionable Murakami vein, Gold imagines an insecure lesbian holidaying alone in a remote Welsh village full of oddballs who spend most of their time in the pub. Her backstory is tenderly revealed over the novel, and it's worth sticking with the often irritating comedic tics to get to the well-judged finale, which completes the sketch of a unique, three-dimensional life.

Laugh Out Loud, 29 Jul 2008
Anyone who is attracted by the words; quirky, unusual, funny, sad and unputdownable will love this little book. A short read at just under 200 pages but I laughed out loud so many times. When tall Mr Hughes leaves the toilet with his flies undone, when the landlord decides he will make more money by being rude to his customers - I was wiping away the tears.

Each character in the story is portrayed so well, you feel such a bond to them all, and care when something happens to them - the 'feel' of a rather uninteresting, nondescript town in Pembrokeshire is so well done - there is nothing there to draw the tourist, but you will want to visit.

This is not a fast-moving plot driven book, but a story of characters and such well drawn characters too.

The story ends quite abruptly, with some sadness but I've been thinking of it still many days later. I'm definitely going to read more by Dan Rhodes

Short but packing a punch, 28 Apr 2008
This started okay for me and I didn't expect to give it more than 3 stars to be honest. However, the second half of the book was much improved and we got to know the characters a bit more. Every year, for two weeks, Miyuki leaves her lover Grindl at home and visits the same seaside village. The locals know who she is but nothing about her. This year she decides to do something different which starts a chain of events that seem to change Miyuki.

An ambiguous ending (or so I thought) leaves you to wonder a lot. This really works in this case. The characters are so stereotypical of a local pub, it's fabulous. The novel is driven by the characters rather than the plot and I can why it was a little slow to begin with as they need to be drawn out for the reader to understand. A good short novel. One worth reading but not necessarily one that would make me seek out his other work.

Gold - Genius, 25 Apr 2008
I loved this book and the all the characters in it. It is simply written, in the usual style of Dan Rhodes but beautifully so. I especially loved the character of Mr Puw who calls every woman he meets 'Thunderthighs' if she is fat or thin!

It's a feel good book about the simple things in life. If you liked this I would recommend that you read all the other Dan Rhodes books, especially Anthropology and Don't Tell Me The Truth About Love. If you like these then you may also like Magnus Mills.

Gently humorous, sharply sad., 10 Apr 2008
A gentlly humorous novel about Miyuki and her annual trip to the same Welsh seaside village out of season, where she walks, reads, and drinks beer for a fortnight before going home refreshed to her lover.
Out of season the village is sleepy and night after night the same small group of people frequent the pub - Short Mr Hughes, Tall Mr Hughes, Mr Puw and Septic Barry among them. Miyuki who's been going back for quite a few years, easily slips into place - until she feels herself compelled to do something that pushes else everyone into action.
The characters are all strongly drawn, and with that touch as in "The last of the summer wine", you can't dislike any of them with all their little obsessions and peccadilloes. As Miyuki's fortnight holiday goes on, we gradually find out more about her and them and grow to love them all which makes the twist at the end all the more of a surprise.
Highly recommended.

Less than one star, 15 Jul 2006
One of the most pointless stories I've ever read.
I found it hard to get into as the story lacked any 'meatiness' that helps readers get deep into a story.
I found Rhodes' had just skimmed over the story, not giving much insight into each character. She couldn't be bothered to build up a character so she just added in random extracts where it looked like she'd added some depth to a character, but didn't even make sense. For example, one part where a delivery man (or whoever he was) enters for two seconds, then suddenly it hints that he has some undying love for her and she will never be his, and then he leaves. What the?
Also, for me it was painful to witness Rhodes' try-hard attempt to be witty. Her humour was very familiar and I felt I'd heard it somewhere before, and therefore didn't amuse me.
Waste of money...

I recommend Starter for Ten by David Nicholls. THAT IS HILLARIOUS!

a good laugh suitably sized for a suitcase, 06 Sep 2005
This is perfect for a bubblegum read in the sun - the laughable story line does nothing to detract from the enjoyment of this book.
There is an undercurrent of cynicism, could call it realism I guess, underpinning the characters, the chipped and bent motivations and behaviour are painfully familiar, even a 'happy' ending can't save this lot. For me this lifts the little white car above the usual drossy chick lit it's parodying.
It's undoubtably from the hand of Dan Rhodes - if you liked the other stuff you'll love this.

Bob's your oncle!, 02 Aug 2004
Well I think it's safe to say that this book was written by Dan Rhodes, and is the funniest book I have read in years. The completely implausible plot is spoofing all the naff chicklit that has terrorised us over the past few years, but at the same time is totally charming and warm. The characters are brilliant, especially enjoying Estelle who for some obscure reason is studying welsh poetry; the doctor who can dance, and Clement who almost has an episode with the dog bowl. It's only a short bookso I won't say any more about it - just read it (and if you haven't read Timoleon Vieta Come Home yet then buy that whilst you are on here), and don't take it too seriously!

'The Little White Car', 17 Jul 2004
'The Little White Car' has had some very bad press, but I think it is unfair. I thoroughly enjoyed this crazy tale, set in France. A perfect holiday read that you can get through in an afternoon, preferably in the sunshine somewhere!
Rumour has it that the author, Danuta de Rhodes is really Dan Rhodes, previous author of some books that I have read but did not enjoy too much. If it really is the same person, then he/she has changed style for the better.

Disappointing, 15 Jul 2004
I found this to be a cross between 'Vernon God Little' and 'Catcher in the Rye' and sadly I'm a fan of neither. The idea itself made you give a lot of thought to what did actually happen on the night Princess Diana was killed, but apart from that the book did nothing for me.

I hated this book, 12 Jun 2008
Not wanting to rant against this I'll keep it short. It was hard to empathise with most of the characters in this book and the style was emotionless and bland. Brutual, depressing and unimaginative, it reads like a list of sorry tales complied from Jerry Springer type of show. I did finish it, with some resentment, but have never before felt strongly enough to review a book on here, good or bad! Don't bother with this book.

**** DO NOT BUY THIS FOR AN ANIMAL LOVER, THEY WILL ONLY HATE YOU FOR IT !!! ****, 04 Nov 2007
Without wishing to state the obvious, whether you find this book funny depends on your sense of humour.

There are too many sadnesses, amongst too much darkness. A girl is jilted and abandoned abroad by a lover who has lied to her, a sad lonely old man is taken advantage of by an attractive younger psychopath, a couple who have a daughter with cerebral palsy miss the moment when she dies as a young adult, a teenage criminal falls madly in love with a local a deaf girl and attempts suicide when she abandons him to further her education - is this supposed to be funny ?

This is an ANTI-story, the complete antithesis to all bright, romantic (Americanised) tales of perfect happy endings. SO BE WARNED.

**** DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK FOR AN ANIMAL LOVER FOR XMAS - THEY WILL ONLY HATE YOU FOR IT !!! ****

Dan Rhodes has unleashed a psychopathic character straight from the dark side of his mind. Do not allow yourself to sympathise with any of the characters, whether human or otherwise, because any small incidence of kindness or happiness is sure to be followed soon afterwards by a backlash of some greater sadness or evil.

Structured in a similar manner to accordion crimes (Annie Proulx) and almost as dark, the stories (usually) well told. However, the author is intent throughout on slapping sentimentality in the face, along with any readers who, brought up on standard fare of happy endings, have allowed themselves to hope for a spark of optimism somewhere in the bleak terrain.

A better title would have been:

"Timoleon Vieta & Sentimental Readers F*** YOU !!!"

SCE

Absolute Rubbish, 31 Oct 2007
I was convinced by a friend to get this book and this book was absolutely disappinting. It had no plot, no substance, and nothing to offer. It was a waste of time.

Unengaging plot development culminating in the ultimate let down ending..., 20 Jul 2007
I was initially quite interested in the story which has an enigmatic charm to it. When Timoleon Vieta is left to fend for himself in Rome (around a third of the way through), the novel evolves into a series of short stories regarding various people the dog encounters. I felt there was a lack of fabric bringing these stories together as there is minimal interaction with Timoleon Vieta in any of them. I found myself vaguely interested in each story (as they are well written) but asking myself what each story has to do with the core plot. When Timoleon Vieta meets his brutal ending at the end of the book, I felt let down by the author. There was no hope or positive message and yet I felt the negative message was also lacking. It was just a case of building the reader's hopes and then letting them down. Disappointed...

Fabulous read!!, 12 Aug 2006
This book has certainly sparked some mixed reviews! Personally I loved it! I am an animal lover; I would rather give to an animal charity than a human charity any day and I often find myself more moved by the plight of animals than by that of humans. Despite the fact that I love animals, I still enjoyed this book and don't condemn it just for its gruesome ending. I don't see how just because one is an animal lover the end would make them condemn the whole book.

Yes, the ending is disturbing (but you really do see it coming from early on and so have plenty of time to brace yourself) and I did find the last few pages difficult to read. I read them whilst chanting in my head "it's not real, it's not real, it's not real"!

There are some wonderfully tragi-comic moments in the book. I found the humour very dark and dry and the general style often slightly reminiscent of "Perfume" by Patrick Suskind. There are also a few genuinely comic moments without the element of tragedy infused in them.

All in all, a great book; very entertaining but maybe avoid if you're inclined to be a tad over-sensitive..