Why Me? The Very Important Emails of Bob Servant by Neil Forsyth
| Why Me? The Very Important Emails of Bob Servant by Neil Forsyth | |
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| Category: General Fiction | |
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Reviewer: Louise Laurie
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| Summary: The one-off and perhaps eccentric Bob Servant has a lot to say for himself. Where most of us would normally 'delete' spam, Bob enters into lengthy discussions as if the sender were his new best friend. | |
| Buy? Maybe | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 183 | Date: November 2011 |
| Publisher: Birlinn | |
| ISBN: 978-1780270098 | |
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Catchy title and catchy front cover graphics. What's not to like? It takes a lot to make me laugh generally, but as I had an initial flick through this book, things looked promising. And I was also thinking that it's a pleasant change to see another location (other than perhaps the predictable Glasgow and Edinburgh) get an airing.
And a nice start to the book I thought was the not one, but two introductions. A rather eloquent one from the author and a more chatty, down-to-earth one from Bob himself. I liked Bob's heaps better. Straight away his warmth and unique take on life came through loud and clear and as comforting as a big mug of hot chocolate on a winter's day. And I hadn't even started the book proper yet. Good start. Forsyth gives his readers a mental picture as in It is in Broughty Ferry that Bob feels truly at home, and to see him marching through the streets is an astonishing sight.
At first I wasn't sure if this Bob character was real - or just a figment of Forsyth's fertile imagination. But apparently he's very much a living, breathing person. And by now he may very well be Dundee's very own 'local hero'.
The book is essentially a pile of emails received by Bob and consequently replied to. The very first line is a corker and one which many regular computer users will probably be familiar with. Ergo. Hello dear. My name is Rose. I am 24 years old and am residing in the refugee camp in Sudan ... As a whopping scam, it did bring a smile to my lips. The mistakes in grammar, spelling, punctuation etc are all there - and the purpose, of course, is to squeeze money out of unsuspecting emailers.
Forsyth takes this gift - and runs with it. Bob enters into other long and often lengthy dialogue with the said Rose (and all the others) often going off at a tangent. The result? The scammer with mounting frustration, anger and sheer dis-belief - gives up. A brilliant, brilliant concept.
And I'm not going to risk your enjoyment of the book so I'll just say that the tone is generally - scammer: insistent and pleading, Bob: charming but bloody frustrating. Put the two together and the results are usually very good indeed. The ludicrous names and job titles of these scammers are 'bigged up' so there's, for example, a director of a national oil and investment company. The banks do not get off the hook either. Here's the start of another email Bob has received Dear Sir, I am Head Manager of the HSBC Ghana bank ...
Bob's return emails and their subject headings are Bob-unique. Often funny, sometimes surprising and rarely get to the point. Bob's style is rambling, conversational but now and again he comes up with a stunner, such as (back to Rose again) ... if you're really hungry, I would consider selling your laptop.
While all this was good clean fun, a downside for me was that there wasn't enough original material. The repetitive emails in the second half was such a shame and they did start to annoy me a little. Some emails were just too long and lost some charm and some humour and ran out of steam long before the end. If this book were even slimmer it would, in my opinion, be punchier and better. I so wanted to love this book but I ended up loving only half of it, if you get my drift.
If this book appeals then you might also like Let Them Come Through also by Neil Forsyth.
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You can read more book reviews or buy Why Me? The Very Important Emails of Bob Servant by Neil Forsyth at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
You can read more book reviews or buy Why Me? The Very Important Emails of Bob Servant by Neil Forsyth at Amazon.com.
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