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From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. A gallery of grotesques slogs through the sewers of the entertainment industry toward redemption in this exhilarating debut novel from the host of The Late Late Show. Leading the pack are Fraser, a Scottish "phony TV evangelist... drunken, selfish media prick... gossip and sot" who has been disgraced in a sex scandal; his cancer-stricken boyhood pal, George; vapid sit-com star Leon; and Leon's 300-pound, sexually perverted Svengali brother, Saul. They make their separate but linked ways through a world populated by snake handlers, serial killers, dead-eyed whores and hack studio executives pushing formulaic action films, while they take hallucinatory side trips. The sprawling tale, with plenty of Scottish backstory, casts a jaundiced eye on media debaucheries and petty vanities, throwing in miscellaneous riffs on everything from Starbuck's to escort ads, but Ferguson is particularly sharp—and funny—on Hollywood proper. For every satire of organized religion or a Vegas that's "as glitzy as a trailer park at Christmas," however, he delivers an injunction to "help others" or an ode to Paris in springtime that somehow sounds fresh. The result is a tour de force of cynical humor and poignant reverie, a caustic yet ebullient picaresque that approaches the sacred by way of the profane. (Apr. 10)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From Booklist
Ferguson is best-known to Americans as host of The Late Late Show, and moviegoers may recognize him as the Glasgow hairdresser in The Big Tease and the pot-puffing lead in Saving Grace. His strange, funny, profane, surreal, and surprisingly moving first novel is about friends since childhood from Glasgow. Fraser meets fame and fortune--well, the Scottish equivalents, at least--as a televangelist but unfortunately has insatiable yens for booze, prostitutes, and . . . knitwear. Meanwhile, George is a bit of a lost soul, who may or may not have a terminal illness. The novel also features illegitimate half-brothers Saul and Leon from the American Deep South and an eclectic cast of historical figures, including Carl Jung. Ferguson pokes good-natured fun at the media, pop culture, reality TV, religion, and, of course, Scotland as the novel jumps gleefully from Glasgow to London to Paris to Miami to Vegas to L.A., and from one character to another, while somehow managing to make weird literary sense. Fond of deranged, slightly warped humor? Try this. June Sawyers
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most helpful customer reviews
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
My guilty pleasure for the week ...,
By Michelle B. (Ottawa, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Between the Bridge and the River: A Novel (Hardcover)
I very much enjoyed Craig Ferguson's book "Between the Bridge and the River". We can call it my guilty pleasure for the week. I read it in two days, reluctant to put it down. Craig skilfully weaves multiple storylines that intersect with the slight-of-hand skill of a magician. He dangles multiple storylines before the readers' eyes like shinny fishing lures that captures the attention of the reader like a flexible string dangled in front of a cat and then pulled away and then put in front of the cat again. You want to know more and are happy when you get more of the storylines, and with a jugglers' skill he keeps all the storylines in the air. Entertaining. And as a pleasant surprise side-affect it encourages you to question perspectives and how they influence your choices and your level of appreciation for what you have at different stages of your life. It is a wonderful blend of story telling, mystery, comedy, a touch of love story/romance/with some war scenes for balance in a slightly religious wizard of oz kind of way - definitely for adult eyes only as some of the casual references and some of the languages used are not for sanitized ears or the faint of heart. I'm 40, S/W/F, and I think it is likely to be equally enjoyable by both men and women (even if it may take you out of your comfort range a wee bit once in a while). Two-thumbs up. Congrats to Craig, and by the way an eye-catching first line. I look forward to the next novel. Enjoy ... I hear everything's going to be all right.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
not done but great so far!!,
This review is from: Between the Bridge and the River: A Novel (Paperback)
I'm not very old but im a huge fan of Craig's. Im not even in highschool yet but if your not very mature this may not be the best book for you. its very unique and intresting and i really like it. I bought it with no idea what its about and i'm inlove with some of the charecters! its a magnificent book if you like laughing at other people mistakes and errors of life.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Between the Bridge and the River,
By
This review is from: Between the Bridge and the River: A Novel (Hardcover)
A writing style to be appreciated. Craig Ferguson's personality subtexts the entire book. The story not only gives you an insight into a general psychology it feeds you it with Ferguson colour.
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