Cultural Dessert

‘Venomous Lumpsucker’ by Ned Beauman

30 September 2022

Regular readers may remember that I'm a big fan of the young British novelist Ned Beauman. I loved his last book ‘Madness is Better Than Defeat’ (reviewed here in October 2017) which was clever, surprising, baffling, hilarious, and completely bonkers. Ned Beauman’s new novel ‘Venomous Lumpsucker’ (which I’ve just finished reading as an unabridged audio book, narrated by John Hastings) is set in the near future and takes on themes of climate change and species extinction. I had forgotten how much I love the absurd, almost poetic nature of the names he invents for characters and, in this book particularly, the Latin names of obscure species, the constant repetition of which (especially when you are listening to the audio book) have a hypnotic quality. In ‘Venomous Lumpsucker’ Beauman takes us to future versions of several Northern European countries which are recognisable but quirkily different from present day. This slightly adjusted parallel world reminded me of the bizarre alternative-reality visions of the UK in the novels of Jasper Fforde (see for example 'Early Riser', reviewed here in October 2018). But Ned Beauman, while often very funny, is more interested in ideas than gags. And his ideas are fascinating as he explores where climate change and current policies might logically take the world. ‘Venomous Lumpsucker’ is a picaresque journey around the Baltic and the cast of eccentric characters that our two protagonists meet along the way made me think of Douglas Adams’ ‘The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy’. But I didn’t enjoy this book as much as Ned Beauman’s previous novels. ‘Venomous Lumpsucker’ has too many lengthy interludes to explain its ideas, at the expense of plot, and lacked the comic set-pieces of his earlier books.  If you haven't experienced Ned Beauman yet I would still suggest you start with 'The Teleportation Accident' (reviewed here in July 2013).

Labels: Books

posted by Robin Simpson @ 2:07 pm