I enjoy live comedy. The very best comedians are masters of the narrative – introducing a theme early, meandering around related topics, only to loop back to the initial idea for that final punchline. Done well, it’s immensely satisfying.

The Echo Chamber by John Boyne is like a 420-page comedy skit. The broad themes are political correctness and social media, and from there Boyne weaves a deliciously sharp satire that had me laughing out loud – and all those threads came to a neat ending with a brilliant final line.

The focus is on the privileged Cleverley family – George is a stalwart of a television talk-show, and a self-described ‘national treasure’ (he’s waiting for a Queen’s honour); his wife Beverley is a celebrated romance novelist (who relies entirely on her ‘ghosts’ to put the actual words on the page); and their children – Nelson, with various hang-ups that his therapist is working through; Elizabeth, a would-be ‘influencer’ looking for a cause that will build her social media profile; and Achilles, a con-artist relying on his schoolboy good looks and charm.

Each character finds themselves in a particularly awkward situation (self-inflicted), that comes about because of their snobbery; their appalling lack of self-awareness; their poor use of social media; or their failure to be sensitive to others. Or a combination of all.

Linking each character is Pylyp, a Ukrainian dancer who partnered Beverley on Dancing with the Stars. Pylyp has been ‘busy’ (i.e. slept with almost every character in the book, unbeknownst to Beverley), and when he has to dash back to the Ukraine, he asks Beverley to look after his tortoise, Ustym Karmaliuk (named after a Ukrainian folk hero). As the book jacket illustrates, the old tortoise and the new world of social media and being ‘woke’ make for appealing contrasts.

“Was bad of me,” he [Pylup] admitted. “I should have called.”
“Or texted. Or emailed. Or Skyped. Or Facebooked. Or Tweeted. Or Snapped. Or Insta’d. We live in a world where it’s basically become more difficult not to contact someone than it is to contact them.” [Beverley]

Because of the nature of the humour, it’s hard to pull out favourite quotes – it’s less about one-liners and more about clever scenes that are built over many pages. But to give you a flavour –

Beverley on her writing process – “Naturally, I insist upon remaining very hands on during the creative process. The stories are mine, so the hard work is already done for you. Really, all the ghost has to do is take my ideas and type them up. I suppose you could compare it to how Leonardo da Vinci took on assistants and pupils, told them what he wanted and then they just got on with it. I feel a great affinity to da Vinci, actually. He’s been a tremendous influence on my work. … Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not comparing what I do with what Leonardo da Vinci did. His work is probably a lot better than mine. But, as fellow creatives, I imagine we would share a certain sympathy.”

George, after being harassed online – I could cure cancer and they’d say I was creating unemployment among oncologists. They want to ruin me…  All these brave little souls hiding behind their keyboards, spitting out their venom. I blame Steve Jobs. And that Zuckerberg fellow. All those clever little psychopaths who couldn’t get laid in high school but make up for their sexual inadequacy by inventing technology that destroys humanity. They’re the Oppenheimers of the twenty-first century.

I suspect some readers will find the satire overdone, but I admired Boyne’s commitment – he’s gone all-out. It’s a very different book to the last one I read of his (and loved) – The Heart’s Invisible Furies – no tears this time, but enjoyable for different reasons.

4/5

I received my copy of The Echo Chamber from the publisher, Random House UK, via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.

Despite Pylyp’s careful instructions about Ustym’s diet, Beverley feeds the tortoise After Eight mints.

As part of the 20 Books of Summer reading challenge, I’m comparing the Belfast summer and Melburnian winter. The results for the day I finished this book (June 16): Belfast 15°-19° and Melbourne 10°-15°.