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 Not good. October 3, 2008
Ben Elton is not the writer George Orwell is. Unfortunately, he is not even a good writer. He's just a popular one. Ironically, his populist works will be read by all the people he hates in this novel.
This book is simplistic - there are no literary merits, and no hidden meanings. It won't get read for a second time by anyone hoping to find a new theme. They aren't there. As others have said, there is nothing subtle or discreet here.
For instance, Elton could make all kinds of comments on the nature of people who go around half naked all day long, but (apparently) the author is only disgusted by the fat ones. NOT the character, but the author. In fact, if he wants to make any individual utterly without redeeming features, he makes them fat. A bit like the way a schoolboy might point and giggle.
This kind of mealy-mouthed nastiness is exactly what Elton is having a (loud) pop at. Such a shame he doesn't recognise his own failings.
We all have our little sacred cows and our whipping boys. It's a shame that Mr Elton's are so obvious.
 An absolutely terrible book September 23, 2008
This is the worst book I've ever read. Stupid, ridiculous, anything but thoughtful. Save your money!
 Very different September 19, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Having just read a very turgid novel, it was a relief to read Blind Faith as a flowing original view on a futuristic society. It is a great comment on modern paranoia transgressing into a fake plastic society based on the Internet generation hooked on reality TV and dismissive of inoculation as evil. Some great Ben Elton humour throughout and another original offering - Ben's only ever written 1 book that I have not enjoyed to date (Dead Famous)
Certainly Worth Reading! September 15, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
[Plot spoiler warning : this review mentions some elements of the plot]
I saw an advert for this book on a bus shelter one day and decided to buy it based purely on the sub-title on the cover :
`If you thought you understood the world we live in, think again ...'
That intrigued me greatly and I made a mental note of it there and then.
I thought it was going to be a factual book and I was surprised on looking up Amazon that it was a novel, but I decided to purchase it anyway. I have never read any of Ben Elton's book, but I generally found this to be excellent and would highly recommend it. Though it's not to be taken too seriously, there is much in it that does reflect, albeit in hilarious terms, many aspects of our society today. For example the propensity to record everything digitally, plastic surgery, over-eating, Jerry Springer type TV confessional shows, group hugs at work, and emoting about one's feelings. And its all set in a future where sea levels have risen so much that cities like London have been reduced to an Archepelago. Elton writes brilliantly and I found his accounts of everyday situations in this nightmarish future world to be utterly hilarious and displaying a very vivid imagination. I am surprised that a number of people in these reviews didn't find it funny. Though perhaps this just says how funny his other books must be.
The last book I read before this one was `Young Stalin' by Simon Sebag Montefiore, and I wonder how many people who have read that book have also read this book (now there's an interesting DegSep problem for analysis!). But I found a strange connection between these two books in places - the small secretive resistance movement and its library of books and the desire to lend these books to others reminded me of the pre-revolution Bolsheviks and Mensheviks, including Stalin himself (a prolific book-lender), which also I read about in the `Young Stalin' book. Also the `Conspiratsia' described in that book was to be found also in Elton's book, in the highly duplicitous actions of Sandra Dee, the government spy. The aspects of `who can you trust' in these dangerous revolutionary situations is conveyed well in Elton's book, through the Sandra Dee character, and it is this very theme that has much to do with the nature and brutality of the Stalin regime which killed 25 million, largely innocent, Russian people. Elton shows a good understanding of revolutionary politics.
On the subject of religion, do religions really encourage this sort of self-promotion and self-indulgence ? I would have thought they would be teaching their flock to evangelise about the religion rather than draw attention to themselves.
Also isn't the reason for all the digital recording simply the affordability and availability of these technologies ? To my mind it is amazing that such technology can be so widely available. It is truly shameful that such sophisticated technology can be used for such innane purposes - underlining man's mischievious `primate' origins. The sad fact is that material wealth and comfort really doesn't forge `good characters' - more challenging experiences do so.
Also isn't the western world very `stuck up' on the notion of privacy ? Isn't our capitalist system founded on the notion of private property ? Privacy is our national obsession, surely ? What about that good old British `privat hedge' to keep those neighbours at arm's length ?
Sandra Dee's cynical view of humanity is one of the most depressing world views I have ever read anywhere in my life. By any spiritual standard at all this would be classed as total blasphemy - namely the wholesale denigration of the value of virtually the entirety of humanity. To assert that it is not worth doing anything `good' for humanity at all because of its extreme moral decrepitude is the blackest pessimism imaginable. Likewise is the assertion that humanity would make all the same mistakes all over again, if given the chance to try.
I was disappointed with the ending to some extent. I think Elton may have succombed to very temptation he so sardonically described in his book, namely by giving his audience a very bloody, dark and violent conclusion. There is so much more that could have been done with the conclusion to this book and I'm sure Elton could have done it brilliantly. Its just like he ended it in something of a hurry. But perhaps though he felt despite the humour that it was a dark novel and didn't want it to be any longer.
All in all though its well worth a read.
 vision of the future? August 30, 2008
Not as funny as some of Ben Elton's other offerings, but still worth a read. An eerie glimpse of what could be if we don't stop watching reality tv shows!!
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