View source for Doggone by Erik Ryman

{{infobox1
|title= Doggone
|author= Erik Ryman
|reviewer= Ekaterina Rodyunina
|genre=General Fiction 
|summary= Sometime in the 21st century, the UK government decides that the taxes paid by the population do not add up even closely to providing the expected level of benefits and health service. The solution to that problem is soon found - namely oursourcing the benefits sector to private companies, which is being done through an internet auction due to low costs, no need for printing documentation and a convenient restriction on items description. The ministeries were bought fast enough, and the companies who bought them were in fact merged soon enough, leaving the government out of any control. Consequences did not take long to take place - in a tricky loyalty-points-will-buy-the-country scheme, one Civil Service chief overnight becomes The Leader: new ruler of the nation. 
To tell you exactly what happens next would be to give it away, but as much I can say - this is a remarkable story of how best laid plans of mice and men often go awry. 
|rating=5 
|buy= Yes
|borrow= Yes
|pages=300 
|publisher= Bluechrome Publishing
|date= October 2008
|isbn=978-1906061531 
|cover=Ryman_Doggone
|aznuk=190606153X
|aznus=190606153X
}}

Let me start by saying that I loved loved loved this book. Cleverly written, full of witty repartees and thought-through details, it is a pleasure from the first till the last page. 
 
Sometime in the 21st century, the UK government decides that the taxes paid by the population do not add up even closely to providing the expected level of benefits and health service. The solution to that problem is soon found - namely oursourcing the benefits sector to private companies, which - as Erik Ryman intelligently mocks it - ends up being done through an internet auction due to low costs, no need for printing documentation and a convenient restriction on items description. The ministeries were bought fast enough, and the companies who bought them were in fact merged soon enough, leaving the government out of any control. Consequences did not take long to take place - in a tricky loyalty-points-will-buy-the-country scheme, one Civil Service chief overnight becomes The Leader: new ruler of the nation.
 
To tell you exactly what happens next would be to give it away (although it is blatantly hinted on by the cover) but as much I can say - this is a remarkable story of how best laid plans of mice and men often go awry. The Leader starts of by promising the world to the people, and in 10 years time, his promise is further from being achieved than humanly possible to imagine. Forget decent health benefits or whatever - it is dogs that disturb the Leader now,and he is determined to take the mere notion of a dog from the British citizen's mind and memory. If not willingly forgotten, the aim will nevertheless be achieved - by using other means and nothing is fair in love and war.
 
Erik Ryman portrays the whole inside mess of politics, secret service, infinite bureacracy and ultimate compliance with the law (however absurd the law is) - and he portrays it leaving nothing behind, no disgusting detail, no atrocity left out. Blood is shed among Nenko Foretsu hailku-like epigraphs, kids left wounded, and the dogs substantially decrease in numbers with every page.
 
This book leaves one wondering whether this is indeed the society one might end up with - if by chance and circumstance one human being is given indefinite power and control. It stirs up thoughts and analogies and makes you understand how, for example, Hitler managed to persuade the German nation that Jews were the enemy to be destroyed and overall how little it takes to be led astray and hate your neighbour, even for just having a dog. 
 
Little things really made that book work for me - how the most horrible of orders are being given in a Jeeves-ian impeccable English, how the style jumps from dialogue to third-person observation or a lecture in class and how chapters are named (see for yourself). The choice of names is a special treat -  one of the seemingly less important characters name is Erik Ryman (how sweetly self-centered of him) and Hastings, Moriarty and Monroe inhabit the pages comfortably.
 
Full of satire, offering no answers but immensely thought-provoking, this book is one of the best I have read in recent years. In all fairness though, I do have a thing for modern-day political fables and dystopias and it might not prove the same for everyone. Nevertheless, I recommend it with enough confidence - it is full of dark humour and not so fluffy dangers, but it is a brilliant and very genuine book to be re-read more than once.
 
Thanks a lot to bluechrome publishing for sending this book to The Bookbag!
 
If you enjoy dystopias, treat yourself to [[The Witness by James Jauncey]].

This book featured in our [[October 2008 Newsletter]]. 

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