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Title: The Old Limey by H. W. Crocker III, H. W., III Crocker ISBN: 0-89526-232-0 Publisher: Regnery Publishing Pub. Date: 22 January, 2001 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.94 (16 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Delightful and enjoyable ride.
Comment: The _Old Limey_ runs in the tradition of _Confederacy of Dunces_, featuring an anti-anti-hero who dares to hold manly ideals and believe in higher principles in the midst of his hilarious observations on disintegrating Western Civilization.
What makes the book a delightful read is that the modern culture of drugs, booze, and raves that surround Nigel Haversham and eventually swallow his heroic search for his goddaughter in LA are described with wit and humor, making the reader laugh out loud at the absurd turns of life. The reader soon gains a genuine appreciation and fondness for the "stiff-upper lip" of the Brit and a real admiration for the author who can so effectively mix Jamaican drug dealers with British noblewomen, crusty tweed-clad generals with leggy California blondes, and black nationalists with red-neck special operatives for a surprise ending.
Rating: 3
Summary: A slow beginning and a wacky, amusing end
Comment: The advance hype of The Old Limey, by H.W. Crocker, III, billed the author as "a latter-day P.G. Wodehouse," which, as a devoted reader of Wodehouse and a participant in a Wodehouse usenet group, piqued my interest and had me stampeding for dibs on reviewing this book. But as I read the book, its style and tone reminded me less of Wodehouse than of Thomas Pynchon, legendary purveyor of hallucinogenic fiction filled with themes of global, geo-political conspiracy and Armageddon on the one hand and the minutia of the lives of its warped, twisted characters on the other hand. The Old Limey fits well into that genre of total lunacy mixed with a political message.
The story begins with Brigadier General Nigel Haversham's odyssey from the stuffy, dusty clubs of England to the barrios of Los Angeles to rescue and recover his goddaughter who has been kidnapped by her boyfriend's drug dealer cohorts. General Haversham (the eponymous Old Limey) has a rich fantasy life based upon embellished reminiscences of his years as an "old campaigner" in the various outposts of the British colonies. In certain respects, he does resemble a Wodehouse character in his slavish devotion to better times "when men were men," and the sun never set on the British Empire. Wodehouse himself preferred to place his stories in an unidentifiable era placed between the great World Wars, in which certain standards prevailed and nothing ever changed, even when he was writing for readers born generations later. General Haversham dwells mainly in the past and his actions are driven by old mores that seem curiously fresh and exotic to the thoroughly modern characters he encounters in Los Angeles -- his values and tactics are so old, they're new.
In his quest to rescue his goddaughter from her boyfriend's drug dealer associates, Los Lobos Colorados (or Los Locos Constipatos, as General Haversham refers to them), General Haversham enlists the help of a decidedly motley crew that includes two typical California ..., three Vietnam Veterans (code named Rebel Yell), a group of ... Jamaicans (code named Jamaican ...), and several menacing suit-and-horn-rimmed-glasses-wearing devotees of the Watts-based Islamic leader, the Esteemed Mr. Iced Kalifah (code named Black Jihad). His sales patter includes conning them into believing he is working on behalf of the British secret service. As he relives his glory days as a commander in Her Majesty's Armed Forces, General Haversham fantasizes about not only rescuing his goddaughter, but annexing the State of California for his country and turning it into an Islamic State in which he would be obliged, as its ruler, to take four wives, one of whom would be the Duchess of York, Fergie, as a favor to the Queen to take her off the royal family's hands and remove her from their hair. (General Haversham's gallantry knows no bounds.)
The surreal quality and downright silliness of author Crocker's narrative had me giggling at certain points towards the end of the story, particularly when General Haversham started comandeering his bizarre and disparate army of rescuers. Although the story moved slowly at the beginning, it picked up steam as General Haversham, disguised as a Don King look-alike in an effort to avoid a repeat of the mugging he had suffered the night before, prowls the bars and nightclubs in search of his goddaughter. The story's ending was a bit far-fetched and anticlimactic, but by then it didn't really seem to matter. If you have a taste for the outlandish and the downright farcical, you will enjoy this story. It also helps to be an Anglophile with some knowledge of the culture and customs, not to mention the history of the imperial reign of Great Britain.
Rating: 2
Summary: Don't Believe the Hype!
Comment: I very much wanted to read this book. A sympathetic portrayal of a traditional British officer is a worthy undertaking in these politically correct times, and American popular culture and the pretensions of pseudo-intellectuals badly need to be skewered. Unfortunately, while The Old Limey was described as accomplishing these things, it was very disappointing in its execution. It simply isn't very funny, and the author doesn't demonstrate that he is very perceptive or knowledgeable about American fads and popular culture for the time in which the book takes place. Contrary to what is stated elsewhere, Mr. Crocker does not come close to approaching the mastery of either Evelyn Waugh or P. G. Wodehouse. Waugh, in such profoundly serious works as Brideshead Revisited and the Sword of Honour trilogy, was still able to evoke howls of laughter because of his biting wit and understanding of human foibles. Lesser works by Waugh such as Vile Bodies also have a great deal of humor and "bite." Wodehouse wrote beautifully, and showed a clear-eyed understanding of human nature, but with much sympathy and rollicking humor. I'm sorry, but The Old Limey doesn't show such qualities.
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Title: Robert E. Lee on Leadership : Executive Lessons in Character, Courage, and Vision by H. W. Crocker III ISBN: 0761525548 Publisher: Prima Lifestyles Pub. Date: 24 August, 2000 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Triumph: The Power and the Glory of the Catholic Church: A 2,000-Year History by H. W. Crocker III ISBN: 0761529241 Publisher: Prima Lifestyles Pub. Date: 13 November, 2001 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: Art: A New History by Paul Johnson ISBN: 0060530758 Publisher: HarperCollins Pub. Date: 30 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $39.95 |
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Title: Persecution: How Liberals Are Waging War Against Christianity by David Limbaugh ISBN: 0895261111 Publisher: Regnery Publishing Pub. Date: September, 2003 List Price(USD): $27.95 |
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Title: Triumph : The Power and the Glory of the Catholic Church, a 2,000-Year History by H. W. Crocker III ISBN: 0761516042 Publisher: Three Rivers Press Pub. Date: 23 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
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