Blind Faith, by Ben Elton

Actually despite it's very light style and over-the-top satire, I found this to be quite a disturning book. Described as "1984 for the MySpace generation" it descrobes a world in which privacy is illegal - everyone must blog, video-stream their lives, confess their every thought publicly, have group hugs at work, and never have a moment to themselves. It's a post global-warming dystopia where children die of curable diseases because vaccination is outlawed and only a blind faith in "the Love" is allowed.
Yes a lot of it is teenage and ridiculous, but frankly, in a society where people are so mad to be famous, where Big Brother is considered an entertaining programme, and where people are indeed putting themselves on show voluntarily in blogs, videocams, and detailing all sort of intimate details to complete strangers, it's not beyond the realms of the imagination to see this all becoming more and more the accepted norm.

Makes me feel slightly queasy about parts of even the wonderful Mumsnet...(And some posters on the baby names threads definitely need to have a look at this book!)

Having read all Elton's previous offerings I jumped upon this one with glee when I saw it released in our local supermarket. I took it home and anticipated reading it with an inner glow. I couldn't wait to get started. It is described on the dust jacket as being "a savagely dark comic novel". Yep that is about right. But comic it ain't. It is set in the far distant future and the world has been flooded. The passage of time is simply marked as "BTF" , Before the Flood and the present day. Its a very wierd concept but basically it makes me think of Lord of the Flies in a late teenage mode. The main character is called Trafford and he regards himself as a rebel because intitially he craves privacy which doesn't exist. This is then coupled with his desire to learn more about an alternative way of living. This is obviously fraught with danger and his little deceits become greater as the story unfolds.
Now a part of me really wants to get to grips with this story but it becomes more and more fantastical with each chapter. It has plama screens in every room of every abode and work space relaying two way information at all times. Nobody can do anything without being spied upon. Authority is seated in Wembley Stadium and gatherings usually begin as a concert of some form and culminate in a law making session with wild and untenable regulations coming into force on the supposed whim of the crowd. One law required everybody to become instantly famous.
I began to tire of Elton's fairy tale quite early and it does seem to me that Elton has used this vehicle to describe every teenage thought and fantasy he ever had and put it in writing. I don't think the story really flowed and the ending was rather expected by then.
So on this occasion Elton has let me down. However, others may find this an entertaining if not unusual read.