It's a case of sad people all the way. Joseph Connolly is trying to be funny. I didn't laugh but it might be because I am too po-faced for words toppling out in dysfunctional chaos. Is there anyone normal between the pages of this crazed expose of Londoners on the edge where the men are wimps and the women scheming bitches in heat? Kevin can't make decisions and then can't perform when he finally decides to ask out a woman. His wife Emily runs the business and has short sexual bouts with Raymond whom she loathes and who can't run his PR business but is bailed out by Amanda who loves him - but who threatens to expose him. His wife is an alcoholic, his mother-in-law demented, his son in terror of the aforementioned Emily who wants to bed him as well. The prose is brisk, with-it and full of a ferocious energy. The characters are so weird you stick with him. The twists are wicked, the humour black, even a house is set on fire. Joseph Connolly tries too hard to be clever by exaggerating the foibles of mere mortals. The novel is a bit like a sitcom and all that's left out is the cue for laughter. He is in grave danger of tripping himself up in the cause of comedy . . . but what a very fine writer he is.