Rodney Welch
Lights Out in Wonderland isn't perfect…but it's a terrific one-man show. Gabriel is the eloquent misanthrope Pierre has been looking for all along, good company even if you dislike him, gracefully moving from screed to story without missing a beat. He's a man who holds a mirror up to a suicidal society and sees himself, a genuine product of his time.
—The Washington Post
Publishers Weekly
Man Booker–winner Pierre pulls a gonzo evisceration of these grim times in his high-octane third novel (after Ludmila's Broken English). Gabriel Brockwell, 26 and trapped in an English rehab facility, decides that suicide is his only option, but he's got some stops to make—first, his home in London, then to Tokyo where his friend, Nelson Smuts, is working as a chef at a restaurant specializing in poisonous blowfish, and finally on to Berlin to look up an old colleague of his father and to stage a last supper in the famous Tempelhof Airport. The narrative, of course, isn't really the point: it's the verbal pyrotechnics, the observations and digressions about society that sneak up on you with their scathing humor or cutting clarity. As a nihilistic screed that rails against capitalism and excesses, this hits all the right buttons (think a fusion of William Gibson's intelligence with Hunter S. Thompson's manic energy), but Pierre doesn't fare as well on the human dimension, finding little heart or genuine emotion in Gabriel or the grotesques he encounters. Even if the characters never really pop, Pierre's relentless energy will keep readers entertained and piqued. (Aug.)
Library Journal
Gabriel Brockwell, the narrator of this impressive and entertaining novel, escapes from a rehab facility north of London, substance abuse habits intact. Vowing to end his life, he travels to Tokyo to hook up with fellow profligate Nelson Smuts for a massive bender. There is a death at the Tokyo restaurant where Smuts is chef, and he is charged with murder. The two contrive a drug-fueled scheme whereby Gabriel will travel to Berlin to set up some sort of apocalyptic feast for a network of international power brokers; in return, the shadowy figure behind this network, whom Smuts knows, will use his influence with the courts in Japan. The author intricately describes the ensuing debauchery and decadence. With the help of a cynical German girl he has fallen for, Gabriel decides that it's time for the partygoers—and himself—to face reality. Man Booker Prize winner Pierre (Vernon God Little) is working on multiple levels. There are a world gone wrong owing to capitalism, hedonism, and ignorance; the coming-of-age of a young man with serious substance abuse and mental health problems; and a pilgrim's progress tale of individual awakening and the birth of moral consciousness. VERDICT Cleverly detailed and skillfully written, this British novel is enjoyable and penetrating. [See Prepub Alert, 2/7/11.]—Jim Coan, SUNY Coll. at Oneonta
Kirkus Reviews
Man Booker winner Pierre (Ludmila's Broken English,2006, etc.) continues on his polarizing way with another extreme adventure, this one undertaken by a narrator who plans to kill himself.
Readers may not feel too terrible about that, since Gabriel, like Pierre's protagonist inVernon God Little(2002), is initially as obnoxious as he is motor-mouthed. Just checked into rehab by his father, Gabriel puffs defiantly on cigarettes while ranting about capitalism and messing with the staff. Soon he slips away for a final pre-suicide bacchanal with his best friend Smuts, who's working at an ultra-exclusive Tokyo restaurant that serves poisonous (and illegal)fuguto those who can afford it. Unfortunately, once Gabriel gets done loading him up with coke and booze, Smuts recklessly takes the challenge of a customer who wants the fish's extra-toxic liver. The customer winds up in the hospital, and Smuts in jail. The only way Gabriel can spring him is by getting Smuts' shadowy "sponsor," Didier Le Basque, to pull strings. And the only way to do that is to convince Didier, who makes a fortune creating one-of-a-kind banquets for rich thrill-seekers, that Gabriel can connect him to a unique venue. So off Gabriel goes to Berlin, where his detested father had a club in the 1990s. Things get even crazier when Gabriel actually does discover the perfect spot for a decadent feast: miles of tunnels and bunkers built for the Third Reich underneath Tempelhof Airport. Even as he enthusiastically participates in the excesses of Didier's right-hand man Thomas, who's arranging the bash in the bunkers, Gabriel is developing a guilty conscience about the whole affair. Can it be that our hero is growing up? Well, yes: Gabriel eventually drops his intended suicide, along with several other affectations of youth, though Pierre does feel obliged to provide an over-the-top finale involving fireworks both gastronomic and incendiary.
Considerably more mature than its predecessors, and just as scathingly brilliant with words, but this author is definitely an acquired taste.
