Brian Gulliver is a travel writer (did a bit of telly apparently) who has gone missing for some time. Now he's back and in an asylum recovering. His daughter meets with him to write down the stories he has to tell of his crazy journey.
Swift's Gulliver's Travels is possibly the most famous satire ever, although it is probably most known now from the bastardised Jack Black film and other movie versions. The book has lasted the test of time and so if you're going to do a new version then you better have something interesting and new to tackle. The book, however goes after some very obvious targets that have been widely covered before. Celebrity culture - yep that's in here, including the obligatory reality TV sideswipe. Our obsession with health and our bodies? Yep, you can tick that box as well. Crazy religions? Well of course. These are all barn doors to be hit with a shotgun.
The main issue for me was for the main characters. Brian Gulliver is an out and out selfish git with little to no thought for anyone else and happy to go along with anything as long as his life is a comfortable one. He's not the kind the character to idolise or empathise with and his ability to apologise it all away is infuriating.
His daughter, the chronicler of his story plays the foil for him, challenging him on all of his behaviour just in case we, the reader, didn't get the point or understand the theme being discussed.
For all that, it's easy to read and moves at a pace that actually robs it of depth since none of the places that Gulliver ends up in is much described beyond the theme that is being put forward there.
On finishing the book, you won't hate it, but you won't be singing its praises either. Oh well, back to Swift.
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