WARNING *CONTAINS YES MAN SPOILER*

What’s wrong with this picture?
‘Nothing, ostensibly, it’s just the front cover of Danny Wallace’s neew book’.
Well what’s wrong with the book?
‘Nothing…ostensibly, but it’s what it represents.
What the **** does it represent then?
It represents the fact that so-called ’smart-writing, humourous non-fiction’ is becoming (if it wasn’t already) grating, irritating and stagnant. I mean come on, ‘Danny Wallace is about to turn thirty and his life has become a cliche [mock shock]. Recently married and living in a smart new area of town, he’s swapped pints down the pub for lattes and brunch [really? why?]. For the first time in his life, he’s feeling, well …grown-up [I wonder what’s coming next]. But something’s not right. Something’s missing [There it is]. Until he finds an old address book containing just twelve names [handy that]. His best mates as a kid. Where are they now? Who are they now? And how are they coping with being grown-up too?’ [I guess we’re going to find out on a magical mystery tour, but no douvbbt they’re fine and justt getting on with things].
z…z…..z….z….z….z
Part of me wants to read Friends Like These, but another, larger part of me doesn’t think I can seriously pick up a copy and take it to a counter, and give more money to the man who ruined the whole ethic of Yes Man at the end of the story by revealing a little way back in the journey he actually said no, effectively rendering the second part of the book redundant, and attempting to retrieve some weird skewered moral from the shambles.
Wallace turns 30 and like his former flatmate Gorman, embarks on a globe-trotting excursion, some semi-mystical quest to work out what growing up means, where his former friends are and whether they’re still one big ‘gang’ of people trying to make it in the world. Well Wallace’s life isn’t cliche, his plot premise is cliche. Firstly Gorman beat him to it and Googlewhack adventure, I would guess, was superb because suspension of disbelief never even crossed my mind due to incessant obsessiveness and full vigour of Gorman in the Googlewhacking experience - in comparison even the idea of Wallace’s own ‘turning 30′ effort is nothing but a simple ‘one more book’ formula supposedly coming about as a result of miraculously uncovering an old address book. Of course.
Tellingly Time Out has said of Wallace, ‘He has the kind of ideas you wish you could bottle and sell’. Well guess what, that’s exactly what he is doing, and people are buying it. I wouldn’t mind (and perhaps this is just me) if the stories he writes were organic, but it seems less and less likely to be the case than Wallace sitting down and painstakingly constructing ideas. No problem, good for fiction, not so good for non-fiction.
Of course I might be wrong, or it might be thought I’m bitter that I’ve no one book receiving the attention all of Danny Wallace’s seem to. That must be it, I must be wrong, I’m sorry for even bringing it up. I’ll reserve my judgement for after having ready ‘Friends Like These‘ and then maybe come back and rewrite my sentiments. But. I doubt I’ll even get past the cringeworthy front-cover…I mean you tell me, what’s wrong with that picture?