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This Is Your Life | 
| Author: John O'farrell
Publisher: Black Swan
Category: Book
List Price: £6.99
Buy New: £5.49
You Save: £1.50 (21%)
New (16) Used (193) Collectible (3) from £0.01
Avg. Customer Rating:  24 reviews
Sales Rank: 18004
Media: Paperback
Edition: New Ed
Pages: 359
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5 x 1
ISBN: 0552998494
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780552998499
ASIN: 0552998494
Publication Date: May 1, 2003
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
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| Customer Reviews: Read 19 more reviews...
 Continuity September 17, 2008
My first ever review, never been tempted to write one before.
I found 'Utterly impartial history of Britain' brilliant, and that tempted me to buy more by O'Farrell. Admittedly, I'm only half way through 'this is your life', but already I have come accross two huge, glaring, continuity errors. I'm willing to forgive almost any contrived circumstance or coincidence as part of the narrative, I'm hardly a literary genious (failed english-lit O-level) but anyone reading this cannot fail to notice the huge continuity errors that I have stumbled over. It's just sloppy work by the author and proof readers alike.
That said, and forgiven, I'm planning to press onto the end, especially as so many reviewers mention the 'twist at the end'. I just hope it it works and doesn't involve yet more continuity errors!!!
 I really enjoyed this book by John O'Farrell July 12, 2008
I really enjoyed this book by John O'Farrell. It told the story of Jimmy Conway who always dreamed of being famous but the real truth was that he hadn't done any stand up comedy before.
As I read I had to laugh because I thought that Betty was Jimmy's girlfriend and it turned out to be his dog. Billy Scrivens was Jimmy's friend and they met when Jimmy was walking his dog.
Jimmy went around telling people that he had done stand up comedy in different places and then he had to own up so I think it was a pipedream.
Loved the take up of This Is Your Life when Jimmy was the 'subject' of the programme and in his mind all his friends and relations were supposedly appearing in his 'dream'
I think John O'Farrell is a good writer and his book made me laugh.
Well done John and all the best.
The value of surface over content... July 26, 2007
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
At times hilarious, this book is about the superficiality of fame and how 'celebs' club together to maintain their 'celebrity' even when they have no idea who anyone is. I like O'Farrell's wandering style and the self-effacing protagonist who manages to advance his career through a combination of bluff and luck.
As other reviewers have rightly pointed out, the major twist near the end of the book is highly contrived and somehow cheapens the whole thing.
Bearing in mind the subject-matter, that may have been the point, but it also tended to make the main characters less 3D than they should be.
Still, it IS funny and worth a read.
Amusing but contrived October 11, 2006
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
I enjoy John O'Farrell's writing, particular his political columns, and "The Best a Man Can Get" was a successful move into fiction. But my feelings about this one are more equivocal.
First, the good stuff. O'Farrell still has a great eye for the killer line to top off a scene. The situation Jimmy gets himself into provides the reader with plenty of amused squirming. And the subject matter - the cult of celebrity and the metropolitan urge to keep up with the "next best thing" - is crying out to be lampooned.
But there are problems. In setting up the comic situations the author asks for just a little to much credulity from his reader. Whilst one can accept the power of coincedence as a narrative device - and, indeed, enjoy the comedy of a great pile of coincedences for a hapless protagonist - there is just too much labouring towards the point at which everything will collapse. By the time I got to the top of the rollercoaster I was expecting a hell of a comic ride down. What I got was a pleasant but staid bit of farce.
Additionally, the supporting cast of characters is one-dimensional, and Jimmy himself doesn't really have a sufficient narrative arc to fully develop his character. The payoff - that rather than dreaming of fame we should look for happiness closer to home - is just a bit too trite.
That said, the book is undemanding and amusing and I got through it with several smirks, a chortle and two guffaws. Perfect for a beach read, and as long as you don't regard it as the treatise on modern manners it sometimes tries to be, you'll enjoy it too.
 A Great Read June 23, 2005
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
I read this after finishing The Best A Man Can Get hoping it would be as witty and laugh-out-loud funny. I wasn't disappointed.
John O'Farrell has a hilarious way with words that has you smiling at every page turn.
Feel you've missed out on fame? Read this book and you'll be glad you have!
Highly recommend it.
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