B S Johnson

Yes, I have; I read it at university, and, apart from being funny and brilliantly written, it struck me as original compared to the dreary British literary fiction of those days (the seventies - in retrospect a dark age for British writing). I also recently read Jonathan Coe's biography of Johnson, which I found slightly plodding. I remember in particular a scene where Christie phoned in a bomb warning to the pork pie factory opposite his office, and another where he altered an order for a carton of carbon paper to a TON of carbon paper. I've got a feeling they've made a film of CMODD recently, which I'd like to see. The whole novel was only about twenty thousand words long - an ideal length, I think. d.beswetherick.

It's a perfect modern novel. Loved it. The cyanide poisoning of the west london water refinery is also classic: "Christie himself wondered: am I not overdrawn? What wrong has society done me that I can offset more than twenty thousand deaths against it?................Everything, he decided after a pause, everything." It is fiercely original. A wonderful surprise, in fact. [%sig%]

I'd like to read it. I've just finished the B S Johnson biog. The stlye of it didn't seem to be as original as the reviews indicated but it was interesting nevertheless; the final section especially where Coe seems to have discovered where Johnson spent his last night. Johnson seemed to come across best in the passages quoted directly from him rather than what Coe had to write about him. Coe made him sound pretentious but when you actually read what he was saying - about poetry, literature he had a point.