Popcorn

I bought this book at a thrift store while on a rainy vacation. Not expecting much, I was very surprised with this story. It had me hooked with great story telling, and edge. Great characters, and a really interesting plot, which kept me turning page after page. I don’t wish to spoil anything, but the ending really was great and left me in shock. Give this one a read you won’t regret it!

This novel was first published in 1996. Whether there has been any updating of the text beyond one reference to the 21st century in this new paperback edition I simply have no idea. Ben Elton is a caricaturist and satirist. He was scriptwriter for the Blackadder series, he used to do a standup comic routine on television that I thought brilliant, and he has several other novels to his name that will give you some idea of what to expect from this one. As with all the best satirists, the humour comes from his sharp eye for the way people behave and think and from his willingness to be near the bone and explicit about issues that are normally thought to require some delicacy. This particular book is hung around the theme of extreme violence, and I'm quite sure that Quentin Tarantino was its inspiration, but any resemblance between the film-director hero and Tarantino himself is really neither here nor there, and the book is not really concerned either with resolving the question whether violence on the media does or doesn't cause violence in real life - we are no nearer an answer to that on the last page than we are on the first. What it is about is the mentality that refuses to accept personal responsibility in the traditional sense. The setting is America and the satire is a particularly English kind of satire, but Popcorn is not about comparing cultures. There are references to certain notorious American trials where the author is left rubbing his eyes with disbelief at the outcome, but I dare say he would have thought the same about the trial of Jeremy Thorpe back at home as he does about the O J Simpson and Lorana Bobbitt cases. Ben Elton's politics are a matter of public record, and they are leftish in much the way my own are. It is not a left-wing stance that finds much time or sympathy for any view that can shuffle off plain guilt on to an individual's background or circumstances, relevant though those may be by way of understanding some aspects of the matter. Elton also throws up his hands in seeming despair at what he sees as a triumph for sheer illogicality and irrelevance in the way issues of criminal guilt are in practice decided on a basis of ethnicity or gender-politics. And whatever influence the media may or may not have in creating or contributing to a culture of violence, he seems in no doubt that the forces of law have to, or at least choose to, trim their sails to the way the media will present issues and the way the public will be swayed by such presentation. Popcorn is, as I say, satire and caricature, not straight reportage or academic analysis. It focuses its spotlight on absurdity, unreasonableness, perversity and a sheer childish immaturity in people's attitudes. The two psychotic villains of the piece are partly depicted as human beings, but partly also as talking heads - mouthpieces for stating an argument. Nobody at all in the book comes out of it particularly well, and Ben Elton takes some sideswipes, in his usual

Elton comprehensively condemns the Tarantino phenomenon: it's not art, it's nasty and exploitative, pornographic and promotes violence. But he's not just too old these days to get it: he writes chapters perfectly ripping off the style. It could have merely been a thinly veiled essay (and is at times), but in satirising, Elton has written a very decent thriller - ironically at times by introducing the very archetypical characters he's condemning. Add to this his usual sharp comic stand-up perspectives, and you've got a powerful read. It should date given its very specific pop-culture context, but it may even be good enough not to. This book is well put together, underpinned by a dry and incisive wit, has some very impressive satire, and makes some penetrating criticisms in an enormously enjoyable and compelling form.

Popcorn is my lovely play and book. In Bulgaria in the National theater , directed by Michael Petroff the spectacle is a happy,funny and triest.Please send me the adres or e-mail of Ben Elton or his menager!Thank you! Nassya

I loved popcorn, it was a great book every where there was a new twist and or turn it was great I am a 14 year old boy who loved it I have the first edition of it.

Wow, what an excellent book! With shrewd observation and rapid fire whit this book works primarily as an intelligent comment on the unecessary sensationalism and glorification of violence in modern film making. But it also works as a satire on some equally vexing elements of modern life and morality. Elton cleverly integrates these issues into what is a riveting and sometimes hilarious storyline. Having previously been a fan of the whole Tarantino phenomenon, I was quickly won over by the Elton perspective.