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Straight White Male

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Straight White Male

By: John Niven
Narrated by: John Cormack
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Kennedy Marr is a novelist from the old school. Irish, acerbic, and a borderline alcoholic and sex-addict, his mantra is drink hard, write hard and try to screw every woman you meet.

He’s writing film scripts in LA, fucking, drinking and insulting his way through Californian society, but also suffering from writers block and unpaid taxes. Then a solution presents itself – Marr is to be the unlikely recipient of the W. F. Bingham Prize for Outstanding Contribution to Modern Literature, an award worth half a million pounds. But it does not come without a price: he must spend a year teaching at the English university where his ex-wife and estranged daughter now reside.

As Kennedy acclimatises to the sleepy campus, inspiring revulsion and worship in equal measure, he’s forced to reconsider his precarious lifestyle. Incredible as it may seem, there might actually be a father and a teacher lurking inside this ‘preening, narcissistic, priapic, sociopath’. Or is there…

Straight White Male is a no-holds-barred look into the mid-life crisis and the contemporary male sexual psyche. It is a brilliant new satire from one of Britain’s sharpest writers.

 Contemporary Fiction Dark Humour Family Life Genre Fiction Literature & Fiction Satire Fiction Witty Funny Heartfelt Inspiring Thought-Provoking
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Critic reviews

Straight White Male is a heartbreaker; a poignant literary treatise on the all-too-mortal battle between human individual desire and social need, disguised as a high-octane novel of laddish excess. (Irvine Welsh)
There's nothing faster, sadder or funnier than John Niven on men. I cried three times and laughed fifty. Magnificent. (Caitlin Moran)
John Niven has much, much more fun with Kennedy’s drinking, fornicating, fighting, time-wasting antics than with his putative rehabilitation, and the reader does, too. We can’t help rooting for Kennedy, a seducer but never a misogynist; a charmer who rushes at life with zest and brio … Straight White Male is a sharp and knowing satire of the film industry, publishing and academia ... Thoroughly enjoyable. (Suzi Feay)
It takes confidence to write a book critiquing books and writers, with a central character who’s abundantly free with his views, but Niven shouldn’t be underestimated…The tone here is authentic … Funny and angry, for sure, yet also thought and humane … Straight White Male is strong indeed.
Straight White Male is in some ways a return to the coruscating satirical landscape of Niven’s debut, yet blended with a maturity and emotional depth that will have the reader shedding a tear as well as laughing in guilty outrage …[Niven] creates a truly moving examination of male midlife crisis, and what it means to be a son, a father, a husband and all the rest. Hilarious and heartfelt in equal measure, this is another candidate for novel of the year.
With Straight White Male John Niven takes humour to another level …Cleverly combining side-splitting humour and unexpected poignancy Niven’s assessment of the excesses of the male psyche is one of the best things I have read in a long time … Straight White Male had me laughing, crying, cringing and blushing all at once.
Uproariously funny, this brims with black comedy, but has an incredibly moving story of redemption.
John Niven is probably the most exciting British writer working today and Straight White Male is addictive, biting, scathing, hilarious and true. I wish I'd never read it so I could read it all again. (Danny Wallace)
The most loveable rogue since John Self in Money. Funny as hell and moving. (Ian Rankin)
Deliciously hyperbolic, obscenely funny, unexpectedly affecting. Niven never, ever, pulls a punch. (Rupert Thomson)
All stars
Most relevant
Much more thoughtful than I'd expected. Funny and sad. Excellent and well read. Well worth getting

Excellent

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Very funny, intelligent and moving book. John Niven smashed it out of the park again!

loved it

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Thank heavens for suggested reading. On this chance discovery John Niven has a new fan. Crafted with the wit and skill of Kennedy himself. Intelligent, insightful and humorous story with a cautionary heartbeat. Excellent narration untroubled by accent or gender.

Thought provoking.

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Steven Stelfox took some beating for his excessive lifestyle but Kennedy Marr has risen to the challenge and added charisma, charm and personality to the equation with astounding results. The reader is pitch perfect and this is is a wonderful satire of Hollywood and UK academia with a leading character of dubious morality and a massive appetite for life. In fact this whole novel is about living life to the full come what may until events conspire to remind Kennedy who he really is and what is most important to him. Kennedy's journey is massively entertaining and there are many laugh out loud moments so be warned if you plan to listen to it on the tube!

Filthily Funny, Entertaining and Poignant

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This book has me giggling from the get go. Amazing narration that pulled you deeper into the character and his story. I would highly recommend this book and was doing so before I had even finished it.

Thoroughly Enjoyed.

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