American Hoax

A big part of holidays for me involves reading, and today I knocked off a book I've been reading in fits and starts all year- "American Hoax".

The book revolves around 5 characters created by writer Charles Firth who, mainly through the use of the internet, he will try to advance in the American political landscape. The characters are named after Aussie icons, including Dr Andy O'Keefe and Edward McGwire. Each is given an agenda and given the task of getting as much of their work published as possible in respected domains.

The book is pretty interesting at the start, but gradually begins to tire a little as many of the characters don't advance that far and really tread water. There is some great humour in the book though, most notably through the use of footnotes. It's different and shows what can be done through an online medium these days. Some of the funnier moments involve pretentious poems by the Khorin-al Ghrant character (a deaf, mute Muslim woman) and the use of Wikipedia and Google to create Bertrand. Best line of the book was this, which cracked me up.

"Today, Dr O'Keefe is planning to run for President, though failing that, is thinking of hosting a new television game show where people have to guess a number and then wait for half an hour to find out whether they were correct".

Worth reading if you're a Firth/Chaser fan or in what can be done with a website and email address.