In the village of Llanchwaraetegdanygelyn, Welsh is the number one language spoke. The village is hidden deep in the valleys and mountains of North Wales and has no electricity or running water. The locals won't allow electricity to come to the village because it apparently means the English will overrun the place and they won't be allowed to use their own language any more.
Jon Bull is a young black civil servant sent to the village to negotiate the supply of piped water and electric. There he meets the young Gwalia and they fall madly and predictably in love with each other.
This is supposed to be a biting and "endlessly funny" satire. To describe something as endlessly funny when one of the biggest revelations in the first half of the book is about a brutal gang rape oon one of the characters is a bit of a stretch. I think it made me smile slightly two or three times in what I managed to read. it's truly laugh a decade material.
As for the satirical elements, I grew up in North Wales after moving there from England in the 70s. I remember hearing about holiday homes being burnt down in the 80s, but by the time this is set, all that was well and truly over. It's hardly biting satire when it's decades out of date. There was a scene with a racist taxi driver who oh so funnily used the phrase nig-nog somewhere in the region of 30 times in three pages. Not even the most committed racist has used that phrase since the 70s. Again, decades out of date with his social commentary.
It gains a point from me in that the two alternating chapters, narrated by each of the two main characters, actually do sound like they're written by different characters. They have their own voices and they're distinct.
it's a shame the story is so poor. the characters are all stereotypes lifted from the wrong decade. The whole set up is totally unbelievable. As someone who grew up in North Wales, I would expect to be able to recognise the targets of the alleged humour, but none of it rings true enough in any way shape or form. the characters are too over the top to be believable, but not grotesque enough to be witty send ups.
There's also a massive plot hole at the centre of the story- more of a gaping chasm or a Marianas Trench than a regular hole- in that they're stalling the electricity by refusing to allow pylons or poles to be constructed, saying the wires have to be fed underground. This would apparently make it impossibly expensive to do. However, they have telephones in the village as Jon phones his office on a regular basis. Therefore, either underground cables or poles are already in place and the whole game of small town politics falls over into even more total stupidity.
The rest of my book group seemed to like it, so you dear readers may appreciate it. For me, it's the very definition of a book that when you put it down, you can't pick it up again.
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