Reginald Perrin is going through something of a mid-life crisis. Sick of the minutiae of his job at Sunshine Desserts, he is driven to desperate measures, and decides to steal a giant lorry shaped like a jelly, fake his own death, and start a new life. This book – the first in a series of three – tells of Reggie’s adventures as he tries to find a meaning to this life.
The very first line – “When Reginald Iolanthe Perrin set out for work on the Thursday morning, he had no intention of calling his mother-in-law a hippopotamus” – gave me a clue that this book was going to be funny, and somewhat surreal. What I didn’t expect was that it would actually be tinged with melancholy too. It’s easy to sympathise with Reggie’s frustration at his colleagues and his job, although the measures he took to find something more to live for were admittedly drastic and ridiculous.
Nobbs balances the melancholy out with lots of laughter though. During the first part of the book, I was amused on several occasions, but not enough to make me really laugh. However, then came the scene describing the funniest dinner party I have ever read about, which actually gave me a stomach ache from laughing so hard.
The book takes a bizarre turn towards the end, and and while it was supposed to be satirical, it didn’t strike quite the right note with me, because it was just TOO unbelievable. However, I did enjoy it overall, and certainly intend to read the next two books in the series.
(Author’s website can be found here.)
Between the Pages 
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