The Hell Of It All [Paperback]

Charlie Brooker can work himself into a snit faster than any writer I've read. Often his target is something worthy of a massive tantrum, such as war or trying to quit smoking, but just as often it's something completely innocuous that sets him off, like scarves or fried egg-flavored potato chips.

His special subject is TV, and about half the columns in this collection are about British celebrities or American TV shows, but even if you're hopelessly clueless about what's on, it's ok. Brooker tends to get distracted while watching and often goes off on interesting non TV-related tangents.

And apparently that whole stiff upper lip thing the Brits had going for a while is over. Every dozen columns or so, Brooker tells us of his latest bout with flu or tonsillitis or excruciating shoulder pain. It sounds very unpleasant and helps to explain how he can get so dyspeptic at such a young age.

One thing Brooker does like is America. He describes a trip to the Southwest in which he recruits a series of friends and acquaintances to drive since he doesn't have a license. (Sarah Vowell did something similar in Assassination Vacation.) California, Las Vegas, even the flight over, all meet with his approval. The only thing he can can find to complain about is that his friends drive too fast.

Maybe the sunny weather suits him. But no, a holiday in Crete leaves him just as cranky as ever, which is good for us, because he's much funnier when he's working himself into a frenzy over iPhones or David Cameron.

Just a note of caution - don't read too many columns at one sitting. The bile, crudity, and general sense of doom that are hilarious in small doses become a bit overwhelming in larger servings. Rather like drinking the whole bottle of Tabasco sauce instead of using a few drops. That could hurt.

As noted by other reviewers, this spit-out-your-tea-funny collection of Charlie Brooker's misanthro-bludgeon scribblings is an absolute treat for anyone who takes gleeful reverie in the darker side of the humour spectrum. I laughed, I laughed again...

Charlie's prose style is a masterful mangling of fizzpopping descriptions and deliriously vicious flights of imagination (Not surprising from one of the writers of the legendary 'Brasseye' series). Deliciously cruel, self-deprecating, perceptive, insightful and downright funny.

Never stop Charlie, you're a beacon of light in the drab and delusional reality you so ably run your sword of journo-hate through.

"The Hell of It All" continues where "Dawn of the Dumb" left off, collecting Brooker's columns in the Guardian from Aug 07 to Aug 09. The chapters are divided between his Screen Burn columns where he talks about tv shows, and his G2 columns where he talks about other stuff. I love Brooker's work especially his writing but always forget his columns are up on the Guardian website each week so seeing a 388 page book appear is always a surprise and a pleasure as I know I've got 2 years of Brooker's views to read first time. So seeing "The Hell of It All" appear suddenly on the Amazon website, I had to order a copy. And is it any good? Of course it is.

Brooker's views on tv are always funny and spot on, like his article on Bruce Parry in "Tribes" where he reimagines an episode based in Glasgow, or his potshots on BB housemates. There's also a fairly mundane article on his fear of spiders until at the end he adds a note saying he had to write this one as his first submission was vetoed as too gloomy for a Monday morning - the article posits the question "Why don't you blow your own head off?". The article is also included in full.

His best work comes in the form of the G2 articles where his descriptions of not caring about anything in the article titled "The Black Hole" are, dare I say it, profound, while the travel piece where he stays in an opulent Las Vegas during the beginning of the economic crisis contains a spot on description of Vegas. There's also a brilliantly funny article on Gordon Brown's dreary time as prime minister, a paragraph of which I loved so much I've typed it out below:

"Here is a man apparently allergic to luck. Nothing goes right for the Brown minister. He can't even pop onto YouTube and attempt a smile without everyone laughing and calling him creepy. And they're right. The smiles were creepy: they made him look like the long-dead corpse of a gameshow host resurrected by a crazed scientist in some satirical horror movie. It's Saturday night, live from Television Centre! The theme tune plays on a church organ. Your children shriek when he bounds on to the screen. As he descends the glittering staircase, one decomposing arm drops off at the shoulder socket, hitting the studio floor with a damp thud. Oblivious, he steps over it to approach camera one, gazing down the lens with frozen eyes, intermittently twitching that smile. Your screen cracks. Hot plasma leaks out. This broadcast is over." (p.351)

Charlie Brooker's written another amazing book where you actually prefer to read about tv than watch it. And great timing too as a fine remedy to all the putrid celeb biographies and cookbooks out any day now. Very funny, very readable, highly recommended.

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