Elect Mr Robinson for a Better World

The narrator of this book is the eponymous local school teacher Peter Robinson who lives in a dystopian suburb in some unnamed part of America. Here the neighbours have turned the local park into a mine-field, protected their houses with such elaborate fortifications as snake-filled moats, deep holes embedded with upturned croquet wickets and shattered beer bottles concealed under Astroturf. Who are they defending themselves against? Some unknown evil force? Or each other?

The novel begins with the town's earnest citizens who on Peter's prompting - he is after all an expert on mediaeval torture techniques - drawing and quartering the mayor using fishing wire tied from their victim's limbs to the bumpers of their SUVs. Soon after, Peter discovers that his loving wife, Meredith, possesses a natural ability to submerge herself into a trance-like state where she assumes the identity of a rare coelacanth.

What makes this novel so engaging is the way Antrim consistently juxtapositions the absurd with the banal. We read of a civic discussion about the dangers posed to children by the various bizarre domestic fortifications while parents try to decide whether to order the clam roll, the fish chowder or the cornbread balls.  As the novel leads us to discover what really were "the awful things that happened to little auburn-haired Sarah Miller" of the first page, we witness the disintegration of Peter Robinson and his chances of being elected as replacement mayor become more remote. This novel is a delightful treat for those who appreciate dark humour, dry dead-pan delivery and the absurdity of Monty Python.