Synopsis/blurb.....
Ray Tompkins
is the kind of person you never get to know. He's the security guard, the
factory worker, the man working the midnight shift. Nobody really understands
Ray - not his coworkers, not his family, and certainly not the women in his
life. There is a rage building inside Ray Tompkins and Los Angeles is the fuel
- the sick obsession with celebrity mixed with the vacuousness of everyday
life. Against this backdrop, Ray Tompkins finds a way to vent his anger. He,
too, will be known.
This was quite an uncomfortable book to read. Ray
Tompkins is a man with few friends and a difficult relationship with his
family. He meanders through life working a succession of low-paid jobs until he
inevitably gets fired from one and moves on to the next. He’s a guy with limited
ambition and little interest in drink, drugs or sex. When he attempts to forge
a connection with a woman or girl, he’s little or nothing to offer them.......he’s
an invisible poster-boy for mediocrity and under-achievement.
Ray tires of the status quo and after transferring
his unrequited affections and infatuations from a college student into a
passionate hatred for Hollywood’s latest Golden Boy and flavour of the month;
he at last shows a measure of ambition and tries to prove himself worthy of
attention.
If I’m truthful I can’t see Baum troubling the best
seller lists with this type of book, as I don’t believe it has mass appeal. Who
wants to spend time reading about inadequacy and low self-esteem, apart from
me?
Interesting and enjoyable and it made a change from
the norm.
4 from 5
I got my copy from the website of Another Sky Press
Col - This one does indeed sound different to the norm. And it provides a look at the 'behind the scenes' lives of those 'invisible' people we never really think about very much. On that score alone it sounds interesting.
ReplyDeleteMargot, I probably wouldn't be in a mad rush to read this author again, but I wouldn't exclude him either. A bit difficult to pigeon-hole really, but it ticked a different box for sure.
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