4 out of 4 stars
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Randy the Irresistible by S M Goodier is a British comedy based on the life of a man named Randy Love. Randy is intelligent and well educated. He is also a very talented salesperson. Despite his foolish and selfish antics, he is widely loved by many people. This novel follows Randy as he drops out of college and begins to earn a living. This book is a bildungsroman where Randy learns about what is important in life and what kind of people are worth his time.
Randy is a selfish and conceited person at the beginning of the book. He flirts with random women and sleeps around without discretion. He has a good relationship with his father John. Nevertheless, he tries to swindle money out of him. Randy just cannot control it; if he sees a shortcut to make money, he takes it. Due to his intelligence and charm, he devises various ingenious plans. Such plans include winning silly bets, playing pranks on his property owner, etc. He initially gets small-scale jobs and then part-time jobs, before establishing himself as an employee of a reputed bank. Randy then realises that he has much more potential and he moves to London and passes the financial advisor exam. There he again moves in and around many houses before encountering a woman named Nicky. Randy’s brother James and his sister Harriet play a major role in his enlightenment as he becomes more mature and wise. Will Randy finally realise that people are important to him? Will he carry on as a selfish single man chasing women? These questions are answered in this fast-paced and hilarious book.
It is easy to condemn Randy’s character and rate this book low because of it. However, I am a devoted fan of British humour. I find it refreshing, and I always learn something new from this genre. This book did not disappoint me. There are history lessons and life lessons strewn amidst amusing incidents. Randy has a knack of getting into absurd situations due to his fundamental lack of common sense and deficiency in the knowledge of human nature. Nevertheless, someone always bails him out. Although Randy seems like a person who lacks basic empathy, we feel like supporting him. When Randy becomes almost homeless, we want him to find a place to stay. When Randy becomes the victim of a credit card fraud, we want him to get his money back.
This book has a multitude of minor characters. Since Randy is the star of the story and everyone else is a satellite revolving around him, these characters appear and disappear randomly. I found it difficult to track them all, but later I realised they exist only as anecdotes for the bigger picture that is Randy’s life. Outwardly, this book may seem like a joke. Initially, this book is shallow and has many misleading portrayals of women and homosexuals. Nevertheless, I would urge the reader to stay a bit longer with the book. Because, eventually, I found many deep thoughts. To quote,
These lines seemed to capture the entire point of human existence.“You seem to have completely missed the point to life. The key to success and happiness is through other people. It’s our human connections that make us more intelligent, compassionate and understanding.”
The book is professionally edited and I could find only one or two typos in the entire book. However, I found the typesetting had some issues. All the double l’s appeared as single l’s in the kindle version. This was annoying at first, but I got used to it. It might be an issue with the online version only and can be easily rectified. In light of the above, I give Randy the Irresistible by S M Goodier a rating of 4 out of 4 stars. It is worth your time if you are a fan of British humour like me. However, those who get easily offended by minor profanity might not like this book. Since Randy initially objectifies women, some readers might get upset right at the start. The book also has certain erotic scenes, which I will not recommend for a younger audience.
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Randy the Irresistible
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