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Attack of the Unsinkable Rubber Ducks | 
 enlarge | Author: Christopher Brookmyre
Publisher: Abacus
Category: Book
List Price: £7.99
Buy New: £3.40
You Save: £4.59 (57%)
New (32) Used (6) from £3.40
Rating:  20 reviews
Sales Rank: 2032
Media: Paperback
Pages: 416
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 7.7 x 4.9 x 1.1
ISBN: 0349118817
EAN: 9780349118819
ASIN: 0349118817
Publication Date: June 5, 2008
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
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| Customer Reviews: Read 15 more reviews...
Thank goodness for the superstrong lavvy paper of reason August 15, 2008
Sphex (London)
Jack Parlabane has a problem with unsinkable rubber ducks, those "people who are determined to go on believing in woo, no matter how much evidence to the contrary you present them with". We've all met them, apparently rational adults, suckered into buying bottled water or alternative medicine. A few pages in we discover Parlabane's specific beef is with the belief in ghosts: "it's still clinging on to the hairy ring of human comprehension, and the lavvy paper of reason just can't quite wipe it off." As a good rationalist, however, he can't avoid a piece of rather compelling evidence about ghosts: the fact that he has just become one. Being dead is bad enough, but the rubber ducks bouncing up and down quacking "I told you so" are infinitely worse.
That single, pungent, pugnacious image - "the lavvy paper of reason" doing its best under trying circumstances - is pure Parlabane. It also points up one of the big themes - the struggle between faith and reason - that makes this novel punch above its crime genre weight. We want to know the truth about the world, but how? Since ancient Greece, through the Enlightenment and the great scientific revolutions of Galileo and Newton and Einstein and Heisenberg, and continuing into the present day, the difficult path has always been to rely upon reason and evidence as the best route to knowledge. The easy option has always been faith - the "act of believing in things for no good reason".
A clue to the author's ambition and inspiration is the book's dedication to James Randi and Richard Dawkins, both in the vanguard of the New Enlightenment. Brookmyre shares their fascination with the psychology of willing self-deception: how do beliefs for which there is an abject lack of reliable evidence thrive? He also shares their determination to do something about it, to expose some of the ways in which such beliefs take hold, by showing us how his characters respond to the pressure to believe. There is the wealthy Bryant Lemuel, who is receiving messages from his dead wife and trying to establish a "Spiritual Science Chair" at Kelvin University. Gabriel Lafayette takes the paranormal "from the end of the pier to the doors of the laboratory" but, according to Parlabane, has more in common with Linda Lovelace - both had "instigated unfeasible feats of swallowing". And why, according to these true believers, don't physicists ever "encounter any evidence of psychic forces"? Not because scientists are really unlucky - they don't see "because they don't believe."
Funnily enough, for this novel - for any novel - to work its magic, you need to believe, to go along with the fiction. When it comes to stories, I like being taken for a ride, I want to believe this is how things are, and I thoroughly enjoyed my first outing with Parlabane. I hadn't read much crime fiction since an adolescent phase collecting (and sometimes reading) second-hand Agatha Christies, and I didn't approach this as a puzzle to be solved (just as well, since I'm pretty slow at that kind of thing). Some seasoned Brookmyre fans have been more measured in their praise: one reviewer suggests this may not be a good first Brookmyre, and others say it's not his best. I defer to their judgement over where this ranks, but for me this was a brilliant introduction. I can see how you can get a kick out of cracking the plot and predicting its twists, but there's more to this novel than finding out the astonishing fact that...
I'd never heard of Christopher Brookmyre until he was interviewed on the radio. I then read his "Dangerous nonsense" piece in the Guardian. It's nearly always a mistake to identify the opinions of a character in fiction with those of the author, but, when it comes to the unsinkable rubber ducks, there's real overlap between Brookmyre and Parlabane, even down to certain phrases: according to C.B., faith needs the "full point-and-laugh treatment" while J.P. stuffs a couple more snooker balls into his phrase and suggests a "merciless point-and-laugh fest". This is an important reason why faith is still around - it's seen as a virtue and is revered rather than ridiculed, even by those who would rather stab their eyes with hot needles than sit through a sermon. The serious point of both author and main character is that "people should be responsible enough to avail themselves of the facts and, where necessary, adjust their beliefs accordingly". It's hard work and can be messy in an unsexy way - sometimes the lavvy paper of reason tears and leaves you with sticky fingers - but it's the best advice to the detective in each of us, to anyone who wants to get at the truth.
 a revelation August 15, 2008
Mr. P. J. Trace (Scotland)
I have to admit that I wasn't familiar with Brookmyre before picking this up, and all I can say is that I'm off to buy the rest - thoroughly enjoyable, well written and humourous. Lots of nice observations of Scottish society too...
Loved it - can't wait for amazon to deliver some more.
Another Stoater! July 31, 2008
A. Ritchie (Edinburgh, Scotland)
Christopher Brookmyre never disappoints and this book is no exception. Jack Parlabane is resurrected as the hero - albeit a dead hero - to guide us through the plot with his usual ascerbic wit. I love Brookmyre's use of language - good and bad! If you're easily offended don't read this book but if you are a realist, living in the real world where people swear a lot, pick up this book and enjoy it as much as I did! Fantastic.
Best Brookmyre so far July 19, 2008
Eric Ambleside (North Yorkshire)
Well, best of the ones I have read so far. Another great title, this time borrowed from the great James Randi's scathing attack on "believers" in "woo", the ones who can have their pet God/psychic/crank medicine thoroughly discredited, and then bounce back up like a rubber duck in the bath, undeterred by evidence, facts, and other trifling inconveniences.
I won't spoil the plot, as there are a number of typical Brookmyre twists, but the general thrust of it is a scathing attack on cranks, mediums, spiritualists and all of their ilk - nicely wrapped up with the usual great gags, sparkling Glaswegian wit (and language) and our hero Jack Parlabane's bottomless well of cynicism.
It's huge fun and left me grinning from ear to ear, and it is yet another one crying out to be moved to celluloid.
Shooting fish in a barrel July 2, 2008
SP Crowley (UK)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Brookmyre knows his audience and this book pushes all the right buttons. It is a scathing attack on spiritualists and like minded frauds and lays bare the methods they use to gull money out of the weak, vulnerable and credulous. A rollicking read spoilt only by the revelation as to the tricksters methods which, rather than being a twist, are obvious for most of the book. Still, good fun, well written and right minded in the most literal sense.
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