Take a photo of a barcode or cover
While I don't know much about the real-life characters and situations that Waugh is satirizing, I was still very, very amused by this novel. All throughout, Boot is more or less carried along for the ride and it's only really dumb luck and stubbornness that allow him to ultimately get the scoop that all the journalists are seeking.
The way the journalists go about their work - spending money like crazy, friendly with each other but also ruthlessly competing, worried about writing stories that will sell papers and getting them submitted first but not worried much about whether the stories are true - was very funny.
Also very funny was the relationship between Lord Copper, newspaper magnate, and Mr. Salter, foreign editor. Copper's ever-changing whims are followed to a T, and reading about Mr. Salter trying to operate in the space between Copper and the confused and very under-experienced Boot, was probably my favorite part of the novel.
Most interesting (and scarily real) was the complete lack of understanding around who is fighting who and why in Ishmaelia coupled with the sense that it's still news of national importance. Journalists from around the world are there and submitting stories, but they don't actually know anything at all. This is most evident when they all head off to a city that doesn't even exist, all because one journalist wrote a story about the place and they must all now follow suit.
This is a humorous look at sensationalist journalism that, we can only hope, is more satire than reality.
Themes: journalism, humor, politics, absurdity of war, news vs. truth, mixed-up identity, satire
The way the journalists go about their work - spending money like crazy, friendly with each other but also ruthlessly competing, worried about writing stories that will sell papers and getting them submitted first but not worried much about whether the stories are true - was very funny.
Also very funny was the relationship between Lord Copper, newspaper magnate, and Mr. Salter, foreign editor. Copper's ever-changing whims are followed to a T, and reading about Mr. Salter trying to operate in the space between Copper and the confused and very under-experienced Boot, was probably my favorite part of the novel.
Most interesting (and scarily real) was the complete lack of understanding around who is fighting who and why in Ishmaelia coupled with the sense that it's still news of national importance. Journalists from around the world are there and submitting stories, but they don't actually know anything at all. This is most evident when they all head off to a city that doesn't even exist, all because one journalist wrote a story about the place and they must all now follow suit.
This is a humorous look at sensationalist journalism that, we can only hope, is more satire than reality.
Themes: journalism, humor, politics, absurdity of war, news vs. truth, mixed-up identity, satire