Description
From Don Quixote to Alan Partridge, delusion lies at the heart of many lasting comic creations. Francis Plug follows that tradition. Yet amid the slapstick Ewen touches on serious points: the closure of libraries, the pomposity (and bad writing) of internationally acclaimed authors, and a changing world of higher learning where students are now consumers. And his continued fictional encounters with real writers on the promotional circuit — Pullman, Chabon, Franzen, Lessing — offer some wonderful laughs. Plug is a Wetherspoons Wodehouse, a dole-queue Defoe, a pissed-up Pepys. Ben Myers Spectator