Book Review: The Unfinished Harauld Hughes - Richard Ayoade ★★★⯪☆

A decade ago, I read Ayoade's first book. In my review, I said: It's hard to know how to assess a book like this. It's far too clever for its own good - a frustrating and humorous look at... what? It's neither autobiography nor comic novel. An anti-novel which trudges the reader through a series of comic vignettes. It reminded me of some of Woody Allen's work. If you get the joke - you'll find it hilarious. Everyone else will just look on in bemusement. And, yeah, this new book is pretty much the same! It's an absurdist novel about a (semi) fictional TV presenter creating a documentary about a (probably) fictional director. Much like Bob Mortimer's books it revels in the mundane and delights in uniquely shaped language constructs. As well as being wryly funny, it is mercilessly satirical. If you've ever read the risible scripts of an "influential" 1950s playwright, you'll immediately feel at home. There's the drip-feeding of a tiny mystery - but it isn't quite enough to sustain the…

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