The book of the film of the story of my life by William Brandt

Makulalanana. Ma-ku-lala-nana. The (fictional) island where Frederick Case resolves his life. He’s 42, divorced and thinning on top. He’s a bit of a loser, in a funny, feel-sorry-for-you kind of way. “The book of the film of the story of my life” won’t change your life, but if you’re looking for some holiday reading that will make you smile, this is not bad at all.
Frederick is a New Zealander living in London. His ex-wife, also a New Zealander, is now shacked up with a gorgeous Hollywood actor. She herself is an actress and she met the new stud working on a film with him. In the film, she gives him a real blow job, which creates all kinds of controversy of course, and guarantees the film’s success. A dirtier mind might make other connections but I’ll leave it there.
Frederick, now totally miserable and failing at life in general, gets invited to an all-expenses-paid birthday celebration for a mutual friend on the island of Makulalanana. He decides to use the opportunity to show his ex-wife just how fine he is without her. So he hires a fellow New Zealander, a hooker, to be his girlfriend for the week. He even gets her to try and seduce the ex-wife’s new boyfriend to show the ex why she’d be better off back with Frederick.
Frederick is an interesting character. He spends quite a lot of time feeling sorry for himself. At the same time, he’s upfront about manipulating other characters for his own gain, which makes for some nice subtle humour.
The hooker, Melissa, is like a breath of fresh, funny, in-your-face air who appears both slightly ditzy and completely focused. Her aim in life is to be a porn star, and she’s an astute judge of character.
The ex-wife isn’t really fleshed out, which makes it hard to form an opinion of her. She drops a pretty decent bombshell on Frederick, but it’s not as big a shock as I think the author intended. There’s no basis for judging her actions against your perceptions of her because you don’t have any.
Matt, the ex-wife’s new boyfriend, is also a bit undeveloped. As the man who tore Frederick’s world apart, I was surprised there wasn’t a bit more about him. He’s a bit of a vague sideline character, although he’s written as being more important than that.
I have to be honest, I found the book a little slow. The island is where the important revelations take place, the climax of the book, but Frederick doesn’t get there till page 211. He is quite a pithy and quick-witted person, and the pace makes him a bit disjointed. I know it’s kind of a coming-of-age book, but Frederick just seems dithery rather than in the throes of a midlife crisis.
I would recommend this for a bit of fun holiday reading, but if you already have a big stack of books, you probably won’t miss it.
| Title: The book of the film of the story of my life |
| Author: William Brandt |
| Format: Paperback, 334 pages |
| Publisher: Victoria University Press 2002 |
