The Midden

When the not-so-bright Timothy Bright unfortunately has his precious funds cut off, he is forced to develop a way to get rich on his own as he struggles to overcome such obstacles as the Chief Constable, his wife, and her alluring and jealous lesbian lover.

Satirist Sharpe returns after a lengthy hiatus, anger undimmed, in an alternately cruel and hilarious tale of greed set in a contemporary Britain blighted by the appetites set loose during Margaret Thatcher's reign. Those familiar with Sharpe's previous work will not be disappointed. This tale, like his earlier novels (Wilt on High, 1984, etc.), features violent slapstick (including a brilliantly sustained scene in which a violent, drunken husband has to contend with a surly watchdog, his wife's lesbian lover, and a drugged lout who has unknowingly crawled into bed with the wife); some spirited, acidic, precise portraits of authority gone amuck; and a grimly humorous skewering of human foibles. Although young Timothy Bright has served quite lucratively as a front man for some shady financial types during the go-go '80s, the crash in the early '90s leaves him broke. He secretly helps himself to some of his family's carefully hoarded capital and flees. The arrogant and not-very- bright Timothy bungles his getaway by running afoul of a powerful and thoroughly corrupt police superintendent. He ends up hiding out at Middenhall, a grotesque country house filled with an assortment of geriatric oddities and presided over by the formidable Miss Midden, and in the middle of a war. It turns out that the superintendent is determined to drive Miss Midden (his only opposition) from the county, the better to continue looting it. The apocalyptic climax involves a shoot-out between a police assault unit and one of the Middens, an addled hunter who mistakes them for terrorists. By the close, Sharpe, with obvious relish, has meted out punishment to the whole scapegrace lot--only the cool, practical Miss Midden survives unchanged. But while there are some wonderfully zany moments here, anger predominates. It's clear that Sharpe really is disgusted by his countrymen, whom he views as shallow, greedy, and dull. Too often, though, the anger overwhelms the satire. A ferociously inventive but uneven satire. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Middenhall is a hideous English mansion, owned by the Midden family, and a wide and wild collection of Middens live on the property. Their idyllic country life is shattered with the appearance of Timothy Bright, who mysteriously appears, stark naked, under the bed of Marjorie Midden's handyman. Add to this mix a corrupt and not too bright chief constable who cooks up a sex scandal allegedly taking place at Middenhall to deflect publicity from his own nefarious deeds. The plot is akin to a Shakespeare comedy of errors, albeit a very dark comedy, with unlikely twists and turns on every page and sex and violence running rampant. The "happy ending" is all but obscured by the dead bodies, the sexual abuse, and the smoldering ruins of Middenhall. Shakespeare it is not. Monty Python fans will be amused. For larger collections.?Joanna M. Burkhardt, Univ. of Rhode Island Coll. of Continuing Education Lib., Providence
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.