Customer Reviews:

0 out of 0 people found the following review helpful
Customer Id: A1Q1XV8MUT9X5X 2008-11-18
 
Review Summary: Nonsense
 
Review Content: It's telling that not a single positive review adorns the cover of Blind Faith. Normally, Ben Elton's books are covered in them.

Elton has identified two trends he doesn't like: the information age in which nothing is sacred, nothing is private and the powers that be know everything about everybody; and the rise of reactionary religious intolerance which rejects reason and science (everything from global warming denial to creationism to refusing vaccinations). Both subjects ripe for satire.

But trying to crowbar those two trends together it makes no sense whatsoever, and Elton has abandoned his own reason if he seriously thinks it does. A society dominated by religious intolerance would undoubtedly be unpleasant, but it is not going to be one where everyone is expected to expose as much flesh as possible and post their sex tapes on the web. These are things that religions rail against. Yes, I know the book is satire but for it to have any validity it has to make sense, to be recognisably the logical conclusion of where we are going. Blind Faith is just nonsense.

But even if you overlook the logical failings, the fact that everyone talks like the most irritating characters from Dead Famous and Chart Throb is enough to make the book poisonously annoying.
 
 
 

0 out of 0 people found the following review helpful
Customer Id: A308H3GNP35G5Y 2008-11-09
 
Review Summary: Gripping and thought provoking
 
Review Content: I had started to go off Ben Elton's books. One of his recent novels centres around a Big Brother style show and another does the same for Pop Idol/X Factor - both subjects I know nothing about and care less. I found Blind Faith to be a gripping story and one that raises a lot of issues. The novel is set in a dystopian future in which floods have ravaged the Earth. Poverty and disease are rife. Britain is ruled by religious fanatics who have banned fiction and scientific theory. People are are kept faithful to a warped version of Christianity by a mixture of dumbed down culture, permissive sex and fear of a modern-day Inquisition.

Comparisons with 1984 are perhaps inevitable but ultimately unfair. Ben Elton, a modest man, would be the first to agree that he has no pretensions to rival George Orwell as a literary writer. That said, his writing has come along a long way; unlike earlier novels, this one doesn't contain political rants or read like the script for one of his stand-up shows. The main character, Trafford, is fleshed out enough that you care for him in his fight against this oppressive system.

There are some parallels with Orwell's work but this is not a rip-off of 1984 as some have suggested. Orwell wrote 1984 over five decades ago and in many ways his vision has been proved right. We have Big Brother in the form of CCTV cameras everywhere and Newspeak (some would say the thought police too) in the more absurd manifestations of political correctness. Elton's book is for a different age and some of the things he predicts are already starting to happen.

In the Britain of Blind Faith anyone who seeks privacy is regarded as a weirdo. People are bombarded wherever they go with non-stop commercials and vacuous celebrity pap. TV screens are everywhere. People eschew meaningful conversation and friendships in favour of the net - not far from the truth in an age when some people seem more interested in instant messaging and collecting "friends" on Facebook than having meaningful human contact. Your every movement is logged on a national database. The only available reading matter is celebrity rubbish and useless self-help books. Group hugs have replaced any sort of motivational leadership at work.

The one thing that doesn't quite ring true is the idea of the Christian religion - even the sick, warped version he portrays here - taking over as a dominant and tyrannical force in Britain. The PC powers that be constantly downplay Christianity - the banning in some schools of nativity plays and a BA stewardess having to fight to defend the right to wear a cross, for example - usually to the acute embarrassment of leaders of other religions. This is not a veiled attack on Taliban-style tyranny either, since most of the behaviour encouraged by the religious leaders in this book would never be tolerated by any of the leading world faiths, moderate or extreme.

Even though religion is an essential part of the book, the above doesn't detract from it being a very good read. It's not split-your-sides stuff though there are some very amusing moments, but it kept me up until silly o'clock and is evidence that Ben Elton has matured considerably as a writer. Recommended.
 
 
 

0 out of 0 people found the following review helpful
Customer Id: A7Q2GHXY89Z29 2008-11-07
 
Review Summary: Masterful analysis of chav culture
 
Review Content: There is no doubt about it, Ben Elton has a gift of being able to describe what we all already know, but have failed to notice.

This book is a masterpiece and a wake up call, alerting us to what society is rapidly sinking into.
 
 
 

0 out of 0 people found the following review helpful
Customer Id: A3KU2MM4VRAP5I 2008-10-20
 
Review Summary: Very readable but a bit too in your face
 
Review Content: I would advise all the reviewers who thought this was a rewrite of 1984 to read Farenheiit 451 - it's a much closer parallel.

This book followed Ben Elton's usual model of taking an idea, and seeing it through to a slightly more extreme conclusion than usual. This time however he took it all the way, and then some more.

It highlights a lot of the current obsessions with celebrity, reality TV, short concentration spans, validity of fellings over fact, desire for fame/success over hard work and generally takes the mickey out of anyone who likes that kind of thing.

It's all done a bit too much, although that could in itself be a parody - he is writing in a way he implicitly criticises in the book.

It is an easy read though, and entertaining and even a bit thought provoking (but less so than his other writing).

Worth a read.
 
 
 

0 out of 1 people found the following review helpful
Customer Id: A3UCM0KMXSDPA 2008-10-03
 
Review Summary: Not good.
 
Review Content: 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.