Review: Sharp, Funny & Entertaining
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 02 11, 2014
If you're heartily sick of all the sappy self-help memes doing the rounds of the internet, then this book is the perfect antidote. Laced with excoriating observations about most things continental, it had me laughing out loud in numerous places.The story, briefly, concerns a completely amoral Nicholas Keszthelyi, dodgy antiques dealer and insouciant Lothario, intent on stealing from the Carmelite Sisters, aided by his mysterious and possibly even more decadent friend Estrade.The story is strong and entertaining, but the chief appeal lies in the way it is told. D.Z.C. has created a guiltily appealing narrator in Keszthelyi - witty , amusing, mercilessly cynical. I'd previously only read the author's collection of ghost stories, 'Bright, Still', and was expecting something in a similar vein. But 'People Like Us' is very different in tone and style. With all the asides, allusions, self-aware snobbishness and general love of language, Nabokov comes to mind.I'll end with one of those exchanges that had me audibly chuckling."And are you a dog lover too?" she asked.I smiled charmingly. "Oh, any port in a storm is my motto.