Going Out

The last time Matt saw sunlight it almost put his lights out for good.
Confined to his house his only contact with the outside world is Julie. Julie has problems of her own though. Whilst Matt can’t engage with the real world, Julie doesn’t want to. She’s so full of neuroses there’s nothing much left.

A chance virtual meeting with a lifestyle guru extending the possibility of a cure sees them and a motley crew of friends and associates load up a camper van and head for North Wales. Throw in some wicca, testicular cancer, a latent mathematical prodigy, and Matt wrapped in tin foil and we’ve all the ingredients for a re-working of The Wizard Of Oz. ( It’s not that difficult to spot and there’s an epigraph and a post script that give the game away ). Like the Wizard of Oz the storyline is the hook for some gentle satire. Only this time it’s consumerism, and brand saturation that take the hit.

The only real weakness is the idea that every character seems to have some neurotic apsect to their character. Anyway, I’m now going to take off the white gloves and replace "Going Out", spine un-broken, on the shelf next to the rest of the chronologically ordered, mylar protected, Scarlett Thomas first editions ( I’m joking about the gloves – I only wear them for hardbacks! )