A review of Wilt
by Tom Sharpe
A stunning novel of comedy and farce
Reviewed by: Alan McClymont
About Alan McClymont
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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