Wilt in Nowhere

by Tom Sharpe

Book Overview

When his endlessly capricious wife Eva receives plane tickets for the family to visit Auntie Joan and Uncle Wally in Atlanta, Wilt knows only one thing - that nothing could entice him to fly three thousand miles over the water, and especially not two rotund Americans with more money than sense. What better way to escape and find equilibrium then to embark on a walking tour? Just Wilt, the countryside, and an ill-judged bottle of whiskey...

Meanwhile,...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0099474131
• ISBN13: 9780099474135
• Release Date: January 2005
• Publisher: Arrow
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 0.64 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.1" x 7.8"

Customer Reviews

Tom Sharpe is always hilarious

Of all the books Sharpe has written his character Henry Wilt is the most enduring. No matter where he goes or what he does poor Wilt seems to attract trouble and misunderstanding. Wilt in Nowhere shows that even when Henry tries to disappear and spend time alone bad luck and hilarious confusion pursues him. I've been a huge fan of Tom Sharpe for years and as an aspiring writter myself I aim to emulate his style of far-fetched, creative humour.

Really funny!

I'm not sure why there are so many negative reviews here but I read the book and I couldn't stop laughing (a few times my wife had to shush me because we were in public). A bitingly sharp (no pun intended) satire of the NHS (anyone who has had to deal with the NHS can well sympathise), Polytechs, English inner cities and the type of Republicans ruling the roost today seen through the hapless Wilt and his wife Eva. Every page is vintage Sharpe and the humour shines through with vigour.

Still the master?

Wilt began Tom Sharpe's peculiar and irreverant view of life that is expanded throughout all his books since. One step outside the normal leads to two steps and before we know it we are in a parallel universe of the absurd that is very, very funny, outrageous, and essentially human, warts and all. Tom Sharpe has inspired some of the best new humour writer's of today. I think particularly of Robert Fox, who in Red Fox Goose Green takes the everyday in English village life -- the fox hunt, the church service, the pub -- and breathes Tom Sharpe style farce into the institutions that made Britain what it is. However, with this latest Tom Sharpe, I am forced to ask myself if the much admired Master of the Absurd is still the master. There are few traces of Tom Sharpe's brilliance in this book, and I think the mantel of the master of modern farce has passed to one of his disciples. To be quite honest, I liked better the Tom Sharpe-like Red Fox Goose Green (Robert Fox, Sharpe's adoring disciple). I found the work of the disciple much more Tom Sharpe-like and much funnier than this real Tom Sharpe.