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A review of Wilt

by Tom Sharpe

A stunning novel of comedy and farce

Reviewed by: Alan McClymont
About Alan McClymont

Wilt I love humor. I especially love humor where you can predict almost everything that is going to happen but you still laugh uproariously and uncontrollably when it does. When it comes in the form a story which is impeccably well written and wonderfully constructed I am almost sad when it is over.

Too many flowery adjectives you may think. If so I suggest you pick up Wilt as soon as possible. The story revolves around Henry Wilt, a man who always takes the easy way through life and as a result never really gets what he wants. Wilt teaches literature to thuggish mechanics and butchers at the local college. The favorite part of his life is walking his dog and simultaneously fantasizing about the many ways in which he could murder his over-powering, bullying wife, Eva.

When, one day Eva finally runs off with a college professor and his wife Wilt sees his opportunity. He drunkenly begins to practice her end by using a life size blow up doll as a dummy. Dressing up the dummy in his wife's clothes and a wig he dumps it down a 30foot hole on a building site which he has seen from the staff room window.

So begins the hilarious tale of mayhem and confusion. Everything that possibly could go wrong for him does go wrong and needless to say he only makes things worse for himself by trying to make things better.

In Wilt, Tom Sharpe has created a character which many of us can recognize. Maybe we don't see him as ourselves but as someone who we are afraid of becoming or even someone that we know and pity. This only serves to make the comedy seem much more real. When we laugh we are not just laughing at Wilt. When we wince with embarrassment it is not just for Wilt. Really what we are experiencing is a sort of empathy with a character who many of us feel that we could be.

Click here to buy this book, or read more about it at Amazon.com: Wilt

Copyright © by Alan McClymont, 2003

Reviewed by Alan McClymont :
-- Dead Famous - by Ben Elton
-- Neither here nor there - by Bill Bryson
-- Lucky Jim - by Kingsley Amis
-- Round Ireland with a fridge - by Tony Hawks
-- The River at the Center of the World - by Simon Winchester
-- The Rape of Nanking - by Iris Chang
-- Timeline - by Michael Crichton
-- How to Be Good - by Nick Hornby
-- Notes from a Small Island - by Bill Bryson
-- Player Piano - by Kurt Vonnegut
-- Wilt - by Tom Sharpe
-- Number9dream - by David Mitchell









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