The Lawnmower Celebrity

Jay Golden's ultimate ambition is "to write a great novel, which will make me a major authentic voice for a generation". This fictional hero has closely studied Holden Caulfield in Catcher in The Rye and has probably slunk in front of the mirror practising the stances of Generation X, courtesy of Douglas Coupland--trying on a series of Mcjobs in kebab shops and lawnmower retailers. He's even got a bit of an Adrian Mole thing going on too, with the careful diary entries, the bemused humour, the cool girlfriend.

Ben Hatch starts in with butterfly punches. Jay's diary entries are funny and sarcastic. They are full of mocking observations: "the only way to behave at work is not to care and not even to pretend to care. This is my strategy and is probably why I keep getting sacked". He tracks his deteriorating relationship with his dad and his girlfriend with fake irony, the timbre of teen angst. But then Ben Hatch lands a punch to the stomach, a winding blow of emotion and grief. As Jay describes his mother illness: "When I hug mum now I can feel every bone. Her eyes seem to be further into her head and her temples are so hollow half a thumb could disappear inside them." The careless pose is revealed for what it truly is--a desperate clutch at trying to cope with all that sadness and sorrow.

Jay Golden is not a major authentic voice for a new generation but his superficial self-obsession combined with his heartbreaking loss make him a beguiling commentator on life. --Eithne Farry

I think the book had a lot of rough edges and that some of the characters felt a little bit lost, but overall I will be buying more from Ben Hatch.


Well worth the read   March 4, 2004
 5 out of 6 found this review helpful

A book that manages to be both funny and heart-warming at the same time.
You can't quite shake the feeling that Jay could quite easily be a not so distant relation of Adrian Mole.

Hatch ensures that you don't have the time to get bored with the story as it paces along brilliantly.
This book is quite simply a great read from beginning to end.


A delight to read   January 31, 2004
 2 out of 4 found this review helpful

I really liked this, ended up reading it in a day. Especially liked the two-sides, one minute you hate Jay for being an annoying twerp, but the next he opens his heart and you cant help but like him. A serious and lighthearted book all rolled into one very entertaining book. Loved it


Unusually splended   October 9, 2003
 6 out of 7 found this review helpful

Loved this one. A magnificently drawn vain, shallow teenager and a superbly patient father character, which reminded me of my own dad putting up with me growing up through my own dismissals and general fannying around. As for the stuff about the mother...wow. Oh and it's very very funny too. Hats off to the author for steering clear of sentimentality.


comedy classic   July 29, 2003
 11 out of 11 found this review helpful

This is one of the funniest books I've read for a long time. But at the same time it's also incredibly touching. I don't think I've read a novel before that can turn laughter into tears and then back so quickly into laughter, certainly not this frequently. You start of thinking what an irritating person the main character is - for example he seems to genuinely believe robots should do all the work in this day and age, keeps getting sacked from jobs including one at a burger joint, and has a smart remark for every occasion - but by the end you're completely in sympathy with him, and also strangely with the father character. The book, absurd in many ways because of the extremes of behaviour (the main character is the worst 18 to 20 year-old you've ever met), is also totally believeable. The mark of good fiction, I think. In fact it's almost too believeable at times. You live it every page, the sad bits are almost too much. It's also a journey you don't realise until three quarters of the way through that you're even on. Growing up. Accepting you might not be what you always dreamed of - in this main character's case: a celebrity. This sounds glib and Big Brothery, but it has a context in the book because the main character's father has celebrity friends he seems to care more about than his own family. I've bought the author's second book, The international Gooseberry out of curiosity more than anything else because it's going to be very difficult to be this entertaining a second time around, I think. To sum it up it's a mixture of Adrian Mole, and (dare I say it) Catcher in the Rye. Lots of books are pitched here. I've read this grandiose blurb hundreds of times and always been let down. It doesn't say this on the Lawnmower Celebrity but in this case I think it's true. I definite hit from me.