Dead Famous takes a quasi-satirical look at the reality game show Big Brother and then takes it a step further. If you’re somehow unaware, Big Brother is a show in which 9 unlikely people are locked up in a house together for 3 months and filmed 24/7. This book concerns a tv show called House Arrest. Only thing is, one of the housemates has been murdered. Sounds like it would be an open and shut case, what with cameras everywhere, and real-time internet coverage but unfortunately for the police inspector assigned to the case, this appears to be the perfect crime. Everyone in the house had motives for the murder, and while they aren’t going anywhere, having opted to try and finish the game, this episode could be any of the remaining housemates last…(cue dramatic music here)
Ok, so the melodrama runs thick here, but for the most part that’s ok. I mean this story is about the ridiculousness of these kind of reality shows and their participants. House Arrest isn’t any more corny or impossible to believe than some of the nonsense that makes it onto television these days. And although the plot can be a bit slow at points the novel makes up for it by being a very fast read overall.
This kind of writing seems to be Ben Elton’s bag. I’ve only read one other book by him (which incidentally was a very good one called This Other Eden), but I think he gets a kick out of poking fun at modern man’s stupidity. He trys to be biting and funny, and while this works mostly, the point where Elton’s methods fall flat aren’t in him, but I think in his audience. Because no matter how much we agree with Elton’s damnation, no matter how much we understand that most of our pop culture is absolute rubbish we also are a part of it and support it too. I hated the American version of Big Brother, but of course I watched it. And therein lies the problem. Maybe Elton isn’t actually damning these institutions though, maybe he really just wants us to realize how much nonsense they are. Well, I think that most people really knew all that before. We’re not stupid. We just like stupid things.
Dead Famous is definitely a decent book, and a good quick read. If you’re unfamiliar with the Big Brother phenomenon check it out anyways. The quirky drama will give you a good laugh just the same. I liked this book, and that’s not to say it’s really quality literature, but then again, when you’re trying to appeal to the lowest common denominator what can you expect…
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