Blast from the Past [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

It's 2.15 a.m. and the phone wakes you. Only someone bad would ring you at such an hour, or someone with bad news, which would probably be worse. You hear the answer-machine kick in and feel your heart beat. You listen. And then you hear the voice you least expect - a blast from the past."

Blast From The Past is the fifth novel from Ben Elton, the celebrated and controversial comedian/playwright/author whose TV credits include The Young Ones and Blackadder as well as the previous novels Stark and Popcorn. Jack Kent, US Captain stationed at Greenham Common during the early eighties, has a secret and unlikely affair with the Polly Sacred Cycle of the Womb and Moon, a 17-year-old ideological peace protester:

the star-crossed lovers made Romeo and Juliet look like an arranged marriage! Pamela Anderson and the Ayatollah Khomeni would have made a more natural-looking couple.

Sixteen years later and a four star General, Kent returns to Britain to seek out his only true love. Polly, now a lonely thirtysomething Equal Opportunities employee, is being stalked by the Bug when the phone rings.

Set in the staid, politically-correct nineties of New Labour Britain, the story flashes back with comic effect to the early eighties, a time of protest, strikes and Cold War. While hardcore Elton fans might be disappointed with the weak plot and smaller helpings of piercing wit and wacky socio-political observations, Blast from the Past still offers up some laugh-out-loud lines and entertaining reading. --Andrew Crawford -- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine vergriffene oder nicht verfügbare Ausgabe dieses Titels.

Jack, a thirtysomething U.S. Army captain, spends a memorable summer in England in the early 1980s making love to Polly, a 17-year-old English girl, despite the fact that each despises the others' politics and worldview. But Jack knows an affair with a teenager who keeps getting arrested for protesting U.S. nukes in England will nuke his career, and after a last passionate session, he simply disappears. Sixteen years later, he steps back into Polly's life, which is a shambles. On the eve of Jack's ascendance to the post of Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Polly is alone in a shabby apartment, trapped in a humdrum social-services job, and being stalked by one of her clients. Jack's arrival spurs hope, passion, and fury in Polly. Elton's ironic, sardonic narrative style is perfect for the wicked satire of ideological debates between lovers on opposite lunatic fringes of the political spectrum. But he's less effective in evoking Polly's gnawing fear of the stalker. All in all, a memorable if somewhat flawed novel. Thomas Gaughan -- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine andere Ausgabe: Gebundene Ausgabe .

Standup comic, playwright, and novelist Elton (Popcorn, 1997) comes up with too little thats new to avoid the soporific in this account of lost love rekindledto no goodamong the back alleys of modern London. Polly Slade is one of those left-wing busybodies who can never be persuaded to leave bad enough alone. A social worker at the Office of Equal Opportunity, she evaluates discrimination cases all day long and presses the suits of those whove been unfairly passed over for housing or promotion. And what thanks does she get for her trouble? Precious little, unless you count the deranged stalker who fell in love with her and now leaves obscene messages in her voice-mail every night. Its understandable, then, that Polly is less than thrilled to hear her phone ring one evening near midnight, though it turns outfor oncethat her fears were mislaid: The caller isnt Peter (her stalker) but Jack Kent, an old flame from the early 1980s. Jack was a US Army captain, then based at Greenham Common, and Polly was living in the lesbian commune formed nearby to protest NATOs nuclear arsenal. They made an odd pair in those days, but managed to fall in love despite it. Eventually, however, Jack abruptly broke things off, fearful that an association with a declared leftist would blight his career. Now, hes risen to the very top and, as a general, neednt worry about a thing. So he calls Polly to rekindle the flame. Can he? Before that question can be answered, he finds himself enmeshed in a weird threesome with Polly and Peter (who by now is even more demented and violent). Maybe Jack can save Polly from more than loneliness. Or maybe he can make a bad situation even worse. An anti-fairy tale sadly lacking the wit or originality to lift it past the middle grade. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. -- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine andere Ausgabe: Gebundene Ausgabe .

Elton's new novel is a black-humor take on the stalker-thriller genre. Sixteen years before this novel begins, an unlikely pair have a passionate affair in the confines of England's Greenham Common. He was an up-and-coming U.S. military man, and sheAknown at the time as Sacred Cycle of the Womb and MoonAwas a peace protester. Now Gen. Jack Kent is up for promotion as head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and she, now simply Polly Slade, is a social worker in England. One of her clients, known as "The Bug," is stalking her, and when Kent shows up on her doorstep one morning, it seems that Polly is up against a pride of men who need her. Those expecting social commentary from Elton (author of the popular British TV series Blackadder) will not be disappointed; the 16-year gap allows him to skewer some of the less savory political elements of the Eighties, including Reagan and Thatcher. Those looking for a John Sandford thriller, however, might find that the author's wit dilutes the frightfulness of the stalkings. Elton's current popularity, plus an upcoming movie version of his earlier novel, Popcorn, should make this a popular book with patrons of most public libraries.
-ABob Lunn, Kansas City P.L., MO
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. -- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine andere Ausgabe: Gebundene Ausgabe .

Ben Elton's career, both as a performer and writer encompass some of the most memorable, incisive and provocative comedy of the last two decades; from }The Young Ones{ and }Saturday Night Live{ to }Blackadder{ and }The Thin Blue Line{. This book was a hardback bestseller and has sold over 75,000 copies in the UK alone, and the paperback edition of this lively thriller should do even better.

It's 2.15a.m. and the phone rings. The protagonist of this tale is lying awake, listening to the sound of his own voice on the answer machine informing the caller that there is no one there and thinking that only someone with bad news would ring at this time of night. He is right, it is a blast from the past.

Ben Elton, geboren 1959 in London, studierte an der Universität von Manchester. Seine Romane "Letzter Countdown" und "Abgefahren" waren internationale Bestseller. Mit "Popcorn" (Manhattan, 54018) gelang ihm ein Kultbuch, das wochenlang Platz 1 der britischen Bestsellerlisten besetzt hielt und später auch als Theaterstück unter anderem in Berlin Furore machte. Ben Elton gilt als Englands populärster und erfolgreichster Comedy-Autor sowie stand-up comedian. Auf sein Konto geht auch die Serie BLACK ADDER mit "Mr. Bean" Rowan Atkinson. -- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine vergriffene oder nicht verfügbare Ausgabe dieses Titels.