On Twenty Major

On Twenty Major

In which your humble author reviews Absinthe Makes the Heart Grow Fonder by Twenty Major

Ah, you know that guy Twenty Major, don't you?

More Irish than me. Better looking. And funnier. Better blog. The author of two (count 'em) novels. The whole nine yards. Not that I'm making comparisons out of jealousy, you understand.

So, when Twenty's publisher got in touch and suggested that I might want to review the follow-up to The Order of the Phoenix Park, I jumped at grabbing a freebie from Dublin's second finest blogger.

So, the puntastically titled Absinthe Makes the Heart Grow Fonder.

If you're a fan of Irish humour, drunkenness, acts of violence and lots of swearing, then this is the book for you.

Luckily, I'm a big fan of Irish humour, drunkenness, acts of violence and lots of swearing, so Twenty's novel – by complete and utter good fortune - found its way to its exact target audience.

It's hardly Salman Rushdie. But if you approach the book expecting great, mind-stretching literature (whining, humourless reviewer from the Irish Sunday Times take note) I'd recommend that you go out and read fucking Salman Rushdie.

Nor is it the greatest novel in the world. This is because I'm still writing it and you'll have to wait until it's finished. But yeah, it's up there well above your Dan Browns and all the other tat that's read by twats.

Absinthe is a crude, well-observed, sweary and frankly very funny tale of a stag weekend in Barcelona, in which tales of drinking and projectile vomiting are told in a way that suggests much first-hand research. And while you might think the ending is telegraphed from 150 pages away, you'd be very, very wrong.

"So Scary," I hear you ask. "Where do you rate this on your Scaryduckworth-Lewis Method for Rating Stuff For Excellence, the internet's number one celebrity-based method for rating stuff for excellence?"

Well, I'm certainly glad you asked me that.

On the Scaryduckworth-Lewis Method of Rating Stuff for Excellence (the internet's number one celebrity-based method for rating stuff for excellence), Absinthe Makes the Heart Grow Fonder by Twenty Major weighs in at an impressive, no-money-changing-hands-at-all:

16/20 - An entirely legal Emma Watson exploring the joys of the Golden Snitch

Available HERE