Bad to the BoneJames Waddington
Dedalus, paperback, 196 pages, £7.99
Review by David Kendall (1999)
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Bad to the Bone
James Waddington
Dedalus, paperback, 196 pages, £7.99
Review by David Kendall (1999)
No way is this a new Memoirs of a Gnostic Dwarf. Whenever I hear the words ‘surreal comedy’ I reach for the bong. Dedalus should know better than to use such terms.
The plot (what would you do to be supreme cycling champion) is slim. Akil Saenz, acknowledged god of the cycling world, is being beaten by second raters. They end up dead or gibbering. Clearly Akil has to do something about this. Will he take the Faustian bargain offered? Who cares?
A few sexual gambadoes in the narrative don’t compensate for the lack of identifiable characters. The bits on cycling are wonderful, but so what? If they had been wedded to character and plot this would have been a gem. As it is it would be less painful to do the London to Brighton on a penny-farthing.