VERNON GOD LITTLE

It's a work of greatness and a worthy Booker Prize winner. My enjoyment of it and admiration for the author are unbounded.

At the moment, I keep thinking about this... Our 15-year-old anti-hero is languishing in prison. He has plenty of imagination and it tends to be reality that causes him problems. While he's in custody he offers up this line, "My old lady calls, but I can't make my imagination deal with her". Now, don't we all know how that feels??

One of two things apply here:

a) It'd take more imagination than he possesses to empathise with and put himself in the place of his mother during the phonecall - or -

b) We know by this point that mother and son have a close (if dysfunctional) relationship. Vernon knows and understands his mother - it really doesn't require too much imagination. Taking the phonecall would, though, be an instance of reality intruding too far.

Whichever one applies (or both?) doesn't matter. We instinctively know what he's getting at and how he feels. This is a fantastic novel.