My Extraordinary Life and Death - Hardcover

MacLeod, Doug

4.08

13 ratings by Goodreads

9781876462796: My Extraordinary Life and Death

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1876462795 ISBN 13: 9781876462796

Publisher: Ford Street Publishing, 2009

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What exactly is The Tight Trouser Club? Where do you buy children bargain prices? How do you survive a father who buries you in the garden whenever you misbehave? And whom do you contact when your wife to shrink? None of these questions are answered in My Extraordinary Life and Death, though what do you expect if the author is dead? A roller coaster of madness and surreal comedy awaits the reader brave enough to open the pages of this truly remarkable book.

Based on a false story.

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About the Author:

DOUG MACLEOD is a Melbourne writer for adults and children who has worked with most of Australia’s top comedians. He started as head writer on The Comedy Company, ended up producing Full Frontal then ran away to write episodes of SeaChange and script edit Kath and Kim. In 2008 The Australian Writers’ Guild awarded him the Fred Parsons Award Recognising Special Contribution to Australian Comedy. His best-known children’s book is probably Sister Madge’s Book of Nuns (possibly the funniest book about exploding nuns ever published), which started as a practical joke on a publisher. It is most unprofessional to write a book merely as a practical joke, so he has decided to do it once again with My Extraordinary Life and Death.

Review:

My Extraordinary Life and Death by Doug Macleod is a cleverly, curiously, comically appealing little book that will make you smile throughout. The author declares that his life is boring, so he imagines a fantastically whimsical life with situations and people that are impossibly, irresistibly fanciful. The illustrations, which look like small woodcuts, are appropriately outrageous. Since the book is a spree of imagination, the author can also describe his ridiculous death. It is a delightful read and a cute gag gift for anyone. Teens will love this one too.

Complete with explosions, wild animals and even intergalactic travels, My Extraordinary Life and Death could well be one of the most exciting stories never to have happened. I recommend this book if you feel like strange humour. Have a flip through!

My Extraordinary Life and Death (Ford Street Publishing) started life as a commissioned blog. Now it’s out there as a book and very amusing it is, too. What the author has done is to “story” genuine Victorian-era illustrations with a supposed autobiography. Even the front and back cover flaps are part of the book. The front flap features “other books you may care to enjoy” -- Shakespeare the Extremely Early Years (a baby), Simple Tricks A Child Can Do (a complicated circus acrobatic performance) and Queen Victoria: Party Girl. The back flap directs you to the Web site which explains all. The drawings are accompanied by a truly over-the-top storyline. For example, an illustration of a Victorian gentleman and a gardener with a shovel accompanies, “Father had a no-nonsense approach to education. If Denise or I were naughty he would tell the gardener to bury us for several hours.” It’s a good example of the style and humour of the book in general. I suspect this book will be enjoyed more by adults or good readers who get the jokes than by younger, average or reluctant readers. It is still worth having, though, for its sheer, entertaining silliness.

A complete farcical romp, this book is lively and sure to appeal to children with a healthy sense of humour. MacLeod envisioned this book when he contemplated this his own life wasn't interesting enough to blog about for an Inside A Dog month stint. As such he created a new life to old, woodcut pictures with a heavy emphasis on the ridiculous and the humorous. My favourite section were the mentions of The Tight Trouser Club and the bear falling in love with him. I was chortling (and not quietly I might add.) A definite tummy tickler!

‘Doug MacLeod is a genuinely funny writer with a wild, bizarre imagination.’

‘This book will find its readers, who may fall down laughing at such a tragic tale.’

‘Very entertaining!’

‘This is a very, very silly book by a very, very funny man.’

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