(Headline, $44.99)
Clever, handsome, funny Marc Ellis is the sort of Kiwi bloke who used to mock me when I was in my teens (and twenties and, okay, yes, my thirties) for being too tall and having big banana feet.
The likes of he and his friends called Spud and Spot and Todger and Bosom never got my European sophistication or my razor-sharp wit. And I never got whatever it is they were having either. But what can I say? Free drinks at a book launch are free drinks at a book launch. When a girl’s in fiscal lockdown she has to find her fun where it’s not going to cost her anything.
And so it was I found myself looking around a room full of blokes heaving – I say, heaving – with laughter as Marc Ellis touched on just a few of the 25 male stereotypes he identifies in this ode to Barry Crump’s Bastards I Have oet.
I might have been mystified, but the men in the crowd? They lapped it up! Yes, it skates on thin ice; yes, it pokes the borax; yes, that’s what they love in a book.
Seeing their faces all beaming and happy and gazing so adoringly at the king of Henanigans (the most dangerous of the 25 stereotypes), I was forced to re-think my Father’s Day book review. I had planned to do the new oaeve Binchy and suggest you give it to the father in your household so he can give it right back to you.
But then I read Good Fullas and it has a whole chapter devoted to The Ginga and what a loyal partner he makes, with a fine sense of humour and a glass-is-half-full outlook. oh, bless.
So on second thoughts, your very own Bogan, Scarfie, Wodgewick or Thrumpet will get a huge kick out of finding himself or, better still, his mates in this book this Father’s Day. And unlike the new oaeve Binchy, it has pictures. (Actually, I met Marc Ellis and he didn’t even mention height or feet. In fact, he seemed very nice.)
Related stories
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
