Vernon God Little by DBC Pierre is one of my favourite novels.  Vernon Little, the protagonist of the novel, forced yet another entry into my consciousness today while I was attending a meeting.  He entered with such ferocity that I am unable to resist the temptation to write these lines.

Vernon is a boy who is accused of a murder that he did not commit.  The circumstantial evidences are against him.  Moreover, he is unaware of the ways of the world and hence ends up making an "ass" of himself every time he tries to prove his innocence.  It's not that Vernon did not try to learn the ways of the world.  He says right in the beginning of the novel, "God knows I tried my best to learn the ways of this world... but after all that's happened... I mean, what kind of fucken life is this?"

His life was ruined by people who were close to him. His mother is eager to draw vicarious pleasure from thinking that Vernon is indeed the murderer because it gives her the opportunity to prove that she can love even a murderer!  His neighbours are eager to be interviewed by the media and thus become popular though at the cost of someone's life.  The girl that he loves betrays him in order to fulfil her ambition of becoming a success in the media.  In fact, she goes to the extent of prostituting herself in order to achieve her goal.  The person who gives him some sound and sane advice while he is in the prison happens to be a heartless murderer.

It's a bizarre world indeed that Vernon inhabits.  That we all inhabit.  That's what I learnt yet again today in the meeting.  That's why Vernon entered my consciousness with a vengeance today.

"In a world where you're supposed to be a psycho, I just didn't yell loud enough to get ahead," Vernon realises towards the end of the novel.

Is it indeed a world of psychos that we inhabit?  I wonder.

I see people preaching big ideals with the blackest evil lurking in their hearts.

I see people pulling down others' public images so that their own images will look elevated.

I see people manipulating statistics in order to prove their own truths.

I see a dagger in the hands of almost everyone, ready to drive it in from the back.

Knife appears as a leitmotif in Vernon God Little.  Vernon believes that a knife was planted at his back by his mother when he was born so that she and other beloved people could twist it whenever they wished. 

Is that the real condition of life? 

I think it's not much of an exaggeration.

Vernon believes that truth succeeds in life just like in movies.  In his case his belief is proved true, though it is his excreta that helps in proving it (not his character).

"This whole crowd of powerdime spinners, with their industry of carpet-fiber experts, and shrinks and all, who finish me off with their blah, blah, blah" will go on and on...

And the media will go on presenting Vernon's excreta to the audience!

P.S. Vernon God Little is black humour.  Notwithstanding all the evil in it, there's much delight in it too.  The smile may be warped, the laughs may be hollow, but they are there.  At the end of all the tumult "Everything's back to normal."  That's the last sentence of the novel: "Everything's back to normal."