World Literature, Fiction Subjects

High Society

Name: High Society
Author: Ben Elton
ISBN: 9780552999953

by Ben Elton

Available on Bookshop Write a review

Books.org participates in affiliate programs including Bookshop.org and the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. We may earn a commission from qualifying purchases made through links on this page, at no additional cost to you.

Overview

The war on drugs has been lost, but afraid to face that fact, the whole world is rapidly becoming one vast criminal network. From the Groucho Club toilets to the poppy fields of Afghanistan, we are all partners in crime, and this story takes us through the landscape it has created.

Synopsis

A terrifying and hilarious journey through the drug world -- from the bestselling author of Popcorn and Dead Famous.

The war on drugs has been lost but for want of the courage to face the fact that the whole world is rapidly becoming one vast criminal network. From pop stars and princes to crack whores and street kids. From the Groucho Club toilets to the poppy fields of Afghanistan, we are all partners in crime. This is a story, or rather a collection of interconnected stories, that takes the reader on a hilarious, heart-breaking and terrifying journey through the kaleidoscope world that the law has created and from which the law offers no protection.

Library Journal

In Elton's latest, a feckless Member of Parliament stumbles upon his moment in the media spotlight only to declare that the war on drugs is lost and to introduce legislation to legalize all drugs in Britain. The resulting spasms are felt through all levels of society-from certain royals to crazed, out-of-control rock star Tommy Hanson to a down-and-out addict and from London's Groucho Club loo (where some people actually go expecting to use the facility for its intended purpose) to the poppy fields of Afghanistan. Chameleon entertainer Elton (a stand-up comic, scriptwriter for the BBC series Blackadder, and novelist, his most recent title being Dead Famous) knows how to keep his cartoon characters moving quickly enough to entertain even the most jaded readers, and he manages to deliver a lesson or two about hypocrisy and the media along the way. This novel, which won Great Britain's WH Smith Fiction Prize (with readers casting their votes at the booksellers and online), should also find an audience on this side of the Atlantic. A good bet for larger public libraries.-Bob Lunn, Kansas City P.L., MO Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

About the Author, Ben Elton

Ben Elton is a well-known British performer, playwright, TV writer and novelist. In addition to his stand-up work, he has written three hit plays: Gasping, Silly Cow and Popcorn; and seven novels: Stark, Gridlock, This Other Eden, Popcorn, Blast from the Past, Inconceivable and Dead Famous, all bestsellers.

Reviews

There are no reviews yet. Log in to write one.

Editorials

Library Journal

Kirkus Reviews

A member of Parliament takes on the bugaboo of drug decriminalization. Well-known British comic author Elton has already taken on reality TV (Dead Famous, Feb. 2003), Tarantino-esque filmmakers (Popcorn, 1997), and the perils of pregnancy (Inconceivable, 2000). Now, he takes up the drug trade and attendant criminality, in pretty much all their aspects. His method is to weave together a number of different plotlines dependent upon a light web of coincidence and interrelations (something like the film Traffic), the most central of these involving a heretofore-overlooked Parliament member, Peter Paget, who proposes a sweeping decriminalization bill that's met at first with expected jeers and consternation but gradually gathers some real steam. If only Paget-the picture of two-kids-and-a-wife decency-wasn't shagging his comely assistant. Elsewhere, there's the crusading anticorruption police inspector, the Scottish girl sucked into addiction and prostitution on the streets of London, a drug mule in Bangkok, and, providing most of the needed comic relief, a running monologue given at various recovery meetings by a hugely successful Robbie Williams-esque pop star about his crimes and misadventures as he ingests truly heroic amounts of cocaine and alcohol. Paget provides Elton's thesis: the illegality of drugs mixed with the near-universal taking of drugs makes the entire county criminal: "We are all either criminals ourselves or associates of criminals or relatives of criminals." The first third or so here is rather inspired, mixing Elton's quick-witted banter with a high-minded yet concretely realistic assault on drug hysteria. Elton, however, like his pop star who whines about this fact, willnot be breaking the US market with his effort. No matter how cheeky the whole, the last half of the book, in which Paget et al. collapse in a welter of bad decision-making and the ravages of addiction, is not as successful in its pathos as the earlier pages were in their humor. A mixture of comedy with tragedy that fails to produce real black comedy: another decent but desperately uneven effort from Elton.