Worst. Person. Ever.

By: Douglas Coupland

Narrated by: Julian Rhind-Tutt

A razor-sharp portrait of a morally bankrupt and gleefully wicked modern man, Worst. Person. Ever. is Douglas Coupland's gloriously filthy, side-splittingly funny and unforgettable novel.

Meet Raymond Gunt. A decent chap who tries to do the right thing. Or, to put it another way, the worst person ever: a foul-mouthed, misanthropic cameraman, trailing creditors, ex-wives and unhappy homeless people in his wake. Men dislike him, women flee from him. Worst. Person. Ever. is a deeply unworthy book about a dreadful human being with absolutely no redeeming social value. Gunt, in the words of the author, "is a living, walking, talking, hot steaming pile of pure id."

He's a B-unit cameraman who enters an amusing downward failure spiral that takes him from London to Los Angeles and then on to an obscure island in the Pacific where a major American TV network is shooting a Survivor-style reality show. Along the way, Gunt suffers multiple comas and unjust imprisonment, is forced to re-enact the ‘Angry Dance’ from the movie Billy Elliot and finds himself at the centre of a nuclear war. We also meet Raymond's upwardly failing sidekick, Neal, as well as Raymond's ex-wife, Fiona, herself ‘an atomic bomb of pain’. Even though he really puts the ‘anti’ in anti-hero, you may find Raymond Gunt an oddly likeable character.

©2013 Douglas Coupland (P)2013 Random House AudioGo

Not great

I have read and enjoyed several of Coupland's books before, but couldn't get on with this at all. Can't say if it was the narration, the plot or the characters but probably a combination of all three. As an English listener there are a number of popular culture references that don't ring true. I got through it, but I wouldn't recommend it.

Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas for the 21st century

Would you listen to Worst. Person. Ever. again? Why?

I very rarely re-read books so no, I wouldn't listen again however that's not to diminish from this book.

What did you like best about this story?

Absurd. Relentless. Dark. Scatological. Hilarious. Surreal in the best possible way

What does Julian Rhind-Tutt bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

I do feel that this novel and the narration (or acting really as he lends superb characterisation to all the voices) are a marriage made in heaven.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Absolutely laugh-out-loud funny. Occasionally I had to pause so I could recover from a fit of giggles.

Hilariously brilliant!

This is one of the funniest books I've ever read. It's my second time now, I read it years ago and then bought it recently on audible. It literally made me laugh out loud every time.

worst. book. ever.

Lazy plot, uninteresting characters. I might have liked this back when I was 15. Well narrated by Julian Rhind-Thutt which is the only reason why I bothered to finish it.