Publication
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC (2006), Hardcover, 495 pages
Physical description
495 p.; 8.5 inches
ISBN
0670914436 / 9780670914432
Language
Collection
Description
What if a demented London cabbie called Dave Rudman wrote a book to his estranged son to give him some fatherly advice? What if that book was buried in Hampstead and hundreds of years later, when rising sea levels have put London underwater, spawned a religion? What if one man decided to question life according to Dave? And what if Dave had indeed made a mistake? Shuttling between the recent past and a far-off future where England is terribly altered, The Book of Dave is a strange and troubling mirror held up to our times: disturbing, satirizing and vilifying who and what we think we are.
Subjects
User reviews
LibraryThing member cherry_red186
I won't comment on the book's story line as there's plenty here already, but I am interested to find I'm not alone in finding this a difficult read. It was particularly frustrating because the concept on which it is based is so entertaining - Dave is such an unpleasant character - and the distant
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future world Self has created is fascinating. The language slowed my reading to a crawl though and I just got tired of it and gave up, mainly because the language stopped me getting really involved. Show Less
LibraryThing member addict
Self, the provocative British raconteur who used the Tibetan Book of the Dead to map London (How the Dead Live, 2000) is taking another literary shot across his home city's bow. In his gleaming new puzzlebook, Self creates a dystopian future London, ruled by a cynosure of priests, lawyers and the
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monarchy. He invents Arpee, the musical language they speak that is based on a sacred text—The Book of Dave—which also serves, satirically, as the society's moral and legal foundation. And who is this deity named Dave? An embittered London cabbie from the distant past—the year 2000.As the book opens, the kingdom of Ingerland is ruled by the elite and ruthless PCO. (Self is riffing on the Public Carriage Office, London's transit authority.) People live according to The Book of Dave, which was recovered after a great flood wiped out London in the MadeinChina era. Flashing back more than 500 years, cabbie Dave Rudman types out his idiosyncratic, misogynist, bile-tinged fantasies while in a fit of antidepressant-induced psychosis and battling over the custody of his child, Carl. His screed becomes both a blueprint for a harsh childrearing climate (mummies and daddies living apart, with the kids splitting time between them) and a full-blown cosmology. As Self moves between eras, he divides the book between Dave's story and the story of the great Flying (slang in the future for "heresy"). The latter involves the appearance of the Geezer (prophet) on the island of Ham (Hampshire) in 508 A.D. (after the "purported discovery of the Book of Dave"), who claims to have found a second Book of Dave annulling the "tiresome strictures" of the first. He is imprisoned by the PCO and mangled beyond recognition, but, 14 years later, his son, Carl Dévúsh, travels from Ham to New London, determined to create a less cruel world that responds to the "mummyself" within. Self's invention of a future language (including dialect Mokni, which combines cabby slang, cockney and the Esperanto of graffiti—and, yes, a dictionary is provided) is wickedly brilliant, with surprising moments of childlike purity punctuating the lexicon's crude surface (a "fuckoffgaff" is a "lawyerly place," while "wooly" means sheep). Self is endlessly talented, and in crossbreeding a fantasy novel with a scorching satire of contemporary mores, he's created a beautiful monster of the future that feeds on the neurotic present—and its parents. Show Less
LibraryThing member Kore
I found this very disappointing. The violence was unnecessarily graphic. The language and style both tiresome. These were the very elements that made Clockwork Orange so compelling. Not what I would have hoped.
LibraryThing member michaeldwebb
I only read half this book. But I didn't give up half way through - I read every other chapter. Sounds odd? Let me explain. The story alternates, with one chapter being set in the future, where people have a religion based on the 'Book of Dave' - a book written by deranged cab driver Dave, and the
I hated the chapters set in the future. The problem for me was that Self used a kind of made up half English/half Davespeak language, and I just couldn't read it. It just didn't click with me - I just found it really unpleasant and frustrating to read. This kind of thing worked brilliantly in, say, Clockwork Orange, but Self just got it wrong as far as I can tell. So I just ignored every other chapter.
The chapters set in the present, telling Dave's story were great, visceral, funny, moving, and luckily standalone as a story. I really, really enjoyed the Dave chapters.
Ironically I got this book on a buy one get one half price deal, so it was half price, so I didn't really mind only reading half the book.
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next chapter being the story of Dave.I hated the chapters set in the future. The problem for me was that Self used a kind of made up half English/half Davespeak language, and I just couldn't read it. It just didn't click with me - I just found it really unpleasant and frustrating to read. This kind of thing worked brilliantly in, say, Clockwork Orange, but Self just got it wrong as far as I can tell. So I just ignored every other chapter.
The chapters set in the present, telling Dave's story were great, visceral, funny, moving, and luckily standalone as a story. I really, really enjoyed the Dave chapters.
Ironically I got this book on a buy one get one half price deal, so it was half price, so I didn't really mind only reading half the book.
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LibraryThing member kewing
Very much in the vein of Russell Hoban and JG Ballard. A London cabbie's marriage disintegrates in the present and reappears in a post-apocaplyptic, flooded UK as the foundation of a religion; a biting satire of contemporary society as the main characters stumble toward self awareness.
LibraryThing member Ravenclaw79
I enjoyed this book overall. It's a sad statement on what survives of humanity many generations into the future -- religious fanaticism and oppression live on and thrive, while rational rules for good living crumble into dust and are lost. It's an interesting take on the post-apocalyptic genre, too
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-- what would happen if humanity's progress was set back by a disaster, and what was left to cling to as society re-formed itself was a book containing the delusional ravings of a mentally ill cab driver in the 2000s going through a particularly rough time in his life?My biggest complaint with this book, and the reason why I gave it three stars instead of four, is that it's just too darn slangy. I mean, I've watched British TV shows, and I've even been to England once -- I'm not ignorant about this sort of thing. And yet, the book was so imbued with London slang that even I was distracted by it and found myself skimming over words, making up my own definitions in my head. (Heck, I actually found the future sections, written in a phonetic Cockney dialect, to be a little easier to understand than some of the present-day parts.) There's a small glossary included in the back, which isn't mentioned at all at the beginning, so I didn't know it was there until I finished the book. Still, a few words went over my head, and they either weren't defined in that glossary anyway or were but were defined with words I also wasn't familiar with (and I have a degree in English -- I'm not dense or anything).But ultimately, while the slang was a bit distracting, it was still an entertaining read, and you could glean enough about what those words might mean to be able to skim past them without getting lost. I'd still recommend this book, but I wish they'd hired an editor for the American edition to ensure that they defined all of the slang that could use defining (or else just tone it down a bit -- c'mon, I've been to London, and I didn't hear anyone speaking in that dense of a slanguage). Show Less
LibraryThing member Steph78
I quite like post apocalypse literature, and was looking forward to reading this. Some of the ideas were fairly interesting, but in the end it wasn't the fairly impenetrable and pretension language that spoiled this for me, it was the complete unlikability of the major characters - Dave being a
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prime example. Not a book I would recommend. Show Less
LibraryThing member knightlight777
I like most here struggled with the language as it was much like reading foreign and made it difficult to follow what was going on at times. But having gotten past that I was glad I read it. The central idea behind this novel, getting beyond the rough hewn characters, to me was how different is
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what we are sold as religion any more then what a cabbie buried in a backyard that many hold as the "gospel truth" and run their lives. Show Less
LibraryThing member SimoneA
This is a very difficult book to review, because it is a book that I found quite difficult to read, but still enjoyed. Like other reviewers, it took me quite some time to get used to the language of the book, but it did add a certain flavour. Overall, I found the story interesting, although a bit
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slow at times. Also, as someone not from London or even Great Britain, I think I might have missed certain nuances in the book. I guess this is one of those books that I would have to reread to decide whether I like it or not. Show Less
LibraryThing member fothpaul
Very slow going at the start as I got used to the style and the Mockni language of the future residents of Ham. I felt the sections with the motos were excellent, I really felt for them, even at an early stage of the book. I really enjoyed the ending of both of the seperate narratives, but found
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the begginning too tough going to be able to give it a higher rating. I certainly would recommend it though. Show Less
LibraryThing member Cedric_Rose
Self writes geography and landscape like Willa Cather on mescaline. Part ethnography of post-apolcalyptic England, part fantasy, part spoof of religion, this is excellent. Self carries the Ballardian hyperimaginitive vision like a torch... been seeking out his work ever since--short stories as well
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as "Psychogeography" w/ Ralph Steadman Show Less
LibraryThing member PilgrimJess
"The past has become our future and in the future lie all our yesterdays."
The Book of Dave the author ponders what would happen if in 500 years from now, English society was shaped by the rantings of a 21st-century London taxi driver. The book is therefore told in two distinct parts with one being
Dave Rudman is a brutish lout who when other went on to university decided to follow in the family footsteps and become a London black cab driver privately cursing his fares and virtually everyone else, particularly blacks, Jews and Arabs. Dave is not handsome either yet one day is invited upstairs by one of his fares, a beautiful woman to have sex. Seven months later, a heavily pregnant Michelle turns up on Dave's doorstep and tells him that he is the father of her unborn child. Dave decides to do the decent thing and marries her.
The marriage unsurprisingly is a disaster interspersed with many verbal and physical battles leading Dave in his frustration to also becoming abusive towards their young son. Dave and Michelle divorce and Dave fights for but is refused partial custody of his son after he attacks his ex-wife and is hit with a restraining order. Dave ultimately has something of a breakdown and is hospitalized. In one of his more lucid moments he decides to write a book for his son telling him who is to blame for his misfortune and is heavily influenced both by his limited experience with women. He has his book printed onto metal plates and buries it in Michelle's garden in the hope that his son will unearth it sometime in the future thus learning what sort of man is father was.
Several hundred years later an apocalyptic flood has destroyed Britain and Dave's book has become taken as gospel leading to the creation a harsh, crude and tyrannical society. In his book Dave decrees that men and women should live separately, except when mating, with children spending exactly half a week with each parent. His followers speak their own language, Arpee, a variant of English that reflects Dave’s own preoccupations, priests are called “Drivers,” souls are called “fares." Anything holy is referred to as “dävine,” anything evil is “chellish” (from Michelle). The future portion of the book revolves around a son trying to find out about his father who had been hauled away by the "Drivers".
This is my first Self book that I've read and I must admit that I initially struggled with the futuristic language element. So much so that I contemplated giving up on it. However, once I got a feel for it and did not have to keep referring to the partial dictionary at the back I found the whole tale rather enjoyable if totally unbelievable. An interesting diversion.
The Book of Dave the author ponders what would happen if in 500 years from now, English society was shaped by the rantings of a 21st-century London taxi driver. The book is therefore told in two distinct parts with one being
Show More
the present and the other being the distant future.Dave Rudman is a brutish lout who when other went on to university decided to follow in the family footsteps and become a London black cab driver privately cursing his fares and virtually everyone else, particularly blacks, Jews and Arabs. Dave is not handsome either yet one day is invited upstairs by one of his fares, a beautiful woman to have sex. Seven months later, a heavily pregnant Michelle turns up on Dave's doorstep and tells him that he is the father of her unborn child. Dave decides to do the decent thing and marries her.
The marriage unsurprisingly is a disaster interspersed with many verbal and physical battles leading Dave in his frustration to also becoming abusive towards their young son. Dave and Michelle divorce and Dave fights for but is refused partial custody of his son after he attacks his ex-wife and is hit with a restraining order. Dave ultimately has something of a breakdown and is hospitalized. In one of his more lucid moments he decides to write a book for his son telling him who is to blame for his misfortune and is heavily influenced both by his limited experience with women. He has his book printed onto metal plates and buries it in Michelle's garden in the hope that his son will unearth it sometime in the future thus learning what sort of man is father was.
Several hundred years later an apocalyptic flood has destroyed Britain and Dave's book has become taken as gospel leading to the creation a harsh, crude and tyrannical society. In his book Dave decrees that men and women should live separately, except when mating, with children spending exactly half a week with each parent. His followers speak their own language, Arpee, a variant of English that reflects Dave’s own preoccupations, priests are called “Drivers,” souls are called “fares." Anything holy is referred to as “dävine,” anything evil is “chellish” (from Michelle). The future portion of the book revolves around a son trying to find out about his father who had been hauled away by the "Drivers".
This is my first Self book that I've read and I must admit that I initially struggled with the futuristic language element. So much so that I contemplated giving up on it. However, once I got a feel for it and did not have to keep referring to the partial dictionary at the back I found the whole tale rather enjoyable if totally unbelievable. An interesting diversion.
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LibraryThing member libthing7
My favourite book.
LibraryThing member Skybalon
Any time a book requires a glossary to read, I'm automatically less interested. This book appears to be an updated version of "A Canticle for Leibowitz" by Miller. There only interesting thing is how he makes the "current day" dialog almost as incomprehensible as the "post-apocolyptic" dialog.
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Couldn't finish it. Show Less
LibraryThing member Ken-Me-Old-Mate
Where to Guv? And so it begins and it will challenge you and if you have not lived in London or had anything to do with it most of this will go over your head. It put me in mind of Riddley Walker that other dystopian, post-apocalytic masterpiece, both in terms of language and feel.
Not an easy read
It is such an English book and reminds me of both why I loved and left England about how poetic and cruel they are as a race and how such amazing possibilities and such repression live side by side in a mutually self hating way.
If this thoroughly depressing book was the news instead of what I read in the UK Papers then I would think that things had improved over there, but instead I find that England today is far worse than any author can imagine and todays news make Dave look like a winner.
If you are English and haven't read this then you need a damn good spanking by Miss Stern
Not an easy read
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at times and forbiddingly long for fiction but it does have something that most books lack. It takes on a massive set of subjects and conquers most of them easily. I liked the to-ing and fro-ing in time and I came to quite like old Dave, warts and all.It is such an English book and reminds me of both why I loved and left England about how poetic and cruel they are as a race and how such amazing possibilities and such repression live side by side in a mutually self hating way.
If this thoroughly depressing book was the news instead of what I read in the UK Papers then I would think that things had improved over there, but instead I find that England today is far worse than any author can imagine and todays news make Dave look like a winner.
If you are English and haven't read this then you need a damn good spanking by Miss Stern
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Awards
Gaylactic Spectrum Award (Nominee — Novel — 2008)
Bad Sex in Fiction Award (Shortlist — 2006)
Original publication date
2006