Fry,
Stephen. Revenge. Random House, July 2002. c320p. ISBN 0-375-50623-3.
$23.95. Fiction.
The victim of a schoolboy prank that goes
bad and ultimately involves the British Intelligence Service,
Ned Maddstone finds himself imprisoned in a private lunatic
asylum, where he is kept in a drugged state for ten years before
he is allowed contact with anyone else. For the next decade,
he falls under the tutelage of a man known only as Babe, an
elderly spy who teaches him the ways of the world and aids
his escape, setting him up with near limitless funds. The second
half of the novel follows Ned as he wreaks his vengeance on
all those involved with his mistaken arrest and imprisonment.
This bald description does not do justice to the novel’s
brilliant execution, diminished only by a protagonist who is
not very likeable and the absence of true conflict as he carries
out his revenge. Still, this is a highly intelligent and well-written
story by British actor Fry (The Liar, etc.), the author of
three previous comic novels and a memoir. Recommended for all
public libraries.