I've always had problems with Sharpe's abrupt endings but the stories he spins are amazing. I would've given it a 3 if not for the bizarre characters. ( )

I just love Tom Sharpe! His books are laugh out loud funny, his characers over the top. But he keeps you coming back for more. ( )

Audio. I gave up! ( )

Tom Sharpe is one of the most savagely funny writers ever, someone that was aptly described as "P.G. Wodehouse on acid" on the back jacket of a number of his books (although not this one). His novels have cascades of increasingly outrageous situations that spiral out of control, largely fueled by characters who compete with each other in the realms of stupidity, avarice, venality, and other minor sins.

I hadn't read Sharpe in more than fifteen years but recently discovered he's written two new novels since then. I just read the first of them, The Gropes, published in 2009.

I don't know whether my tastes have changed or Sharpe's powers have dimmed, but either way the novel, while it has all the elements you expect from his novels, somehow never rises to the level of laugh-out-loud funny. Still, it is a page turner with an outrageous enough plot with dozens of twists and turns that revolves around a clan of women going back to old England that exercises complete control over their household, kidnaps men, forces them to have children, and passes control of the clan to the next generation of daughters.

But in addition to not being as funny as some of his previous, it also seemed just a little bit meaner and hollower.

That leaves one more book, the fifth in Sharpe's excellent Wilt series. ( )

bof bof, carrement pas au niveau de wilt. ( )