Dennis Bisskit and The Man From Paris With the Very Large Head

Great Characters, Great World in The Book, Entertaining.

This book was given to me by the author for my review.

“Dennis Bisskit and The Man from Paris with the Very Large Head” is a coming of age comedy, with compelling characters and excellent world-building.

At the beginning of “Dennis Bisskit and The Man from Paris With The Very Large Head,” the backstory is split between the years 1968 and 1969, showing how Dennis has made slow progress in his career and in his personal life. This is interesting because the 60s was a time of great changes. The 60s was the time when man first set foot on the moon, something that due to forces beyond Dennis’ control, he manages to miss!

We also sense that Dennis has missed a great deal of his own life because of his self-absorption and introspection. He has boasted to Stinky, saying that “in another five years” he could be promoted to General Sir Dennis Bisskit. At the same time, he has failed to listen to Stinky’s “Big News.” What a twist of fate, an irony, that Stinky is the one who flourishes in the army! Stinky is the first to have a steady girlfriend. Some time has lapsed before it dawns on Dennis that Brenda might be “the future Mrs. Blackshaw.”

Dennis cuts a sorry figure when we see that he is stuck, living with his parents and his grandfather enjoying the so-called “best years of his life.”

Significantly, on Stinky’s wedding day, although Bisskit is Best Man, and expected to deliver a speech, once again he is literally and metaphorically “left out in the cold.”

Time passes, and we see Dennis make one life-changing decision. Following his attempted courtship of Gloria, the daughter of the army chief, Blunkett, his working life has been made a misery. Blunkett seeks revenge by assigning him “dirty jobs” that no-one else wants to do. A “useless soldier,” Dennis leaves the army. An admirer of Bogart, he opens a detective agency inspired by his hero, Sam Spade. He has a business, run on a shoe-string, that seems to give him a kind of alibi for how he spends or wastes his time.

Although Stinky had found his vocation in the army, his marriage to Brenda means he has local ties; he leaves the army to join Dennis in his business. This creates conflict between Brenda, now Mrs. Blackshaw, and himself.

Author Stephen Ainley paints a very funny picture of Bisskit’s “mission under cover” chasing “red herrings” (or is it pilchards?) to try to earn a few pounds, and there is much pathos as we root for these anti heroes and wonder what they will do next and what may become of them … I will allow you to discover this for yourselves!

Author Stephen Ainley builds a world that is compelling and entertaining, tragic and comic, realistic and fantastical.

A good aspect of “Dennis Bisskit and The Man from Paris With The Very Large Head” is the subtle way in which the author creates agency for the women in the story, ensuring that his story has universal appeal. Gloria, who escapes the control of her father by taking work at The Midland Hotel, plays a crucial role trying to catch a thief …

What a masterful touch that the lead character, Dennis Bisskit, and his side-kick are embroiled in the mystery “underground” disappearance of a masterpiece: “The Man from Paris With The Very Large Head.” We sense that something will surface, given the right set of circumstances.

This Dennis Bisskit sequel is about one young man whose identity is emergent – a young man’s quest to get ahead/head. A coming of age tale, it depicts a dreamer and a fantasist who struggles to overcome early adversity in his life.

This young man goes “under cover” to try to hide his social awkwardness and inferiority complex. He becomes a self-made alternative “authority figure” who has a planet of his very own. Bisskit has courage and resilience, and with the support of Gloria and his side-kick, Stinky, he grows in stature to fight officials, corruption and the establishment, against the odds. His efforts are admirable even though the Scottish Man escapes …

Dennis gets to write his own rules, not least of which is a declaration about the importance of having and wearing the right kind of underpants. It is especially heart-warming to experience the genuine loyalty and camaraderie between this unlikely pair of detectives which we sense goes way beyond the action of the book.

Dennis Bisskit, James Bond of Dudley, Working-Class Hero, (among many other things,) you can’t help but love him!

My Final Thoughts:

The best things about this book are the crafting of characters, world-building, and the effective thematic tension between reality/fantasy, home/away, good/evil, loyalty/betrayal, tragedy/comedy that brings the book together as an integral whole.

I enjoyed the social satire and the depiction of “class” values in the book.

It was brave to write a hilarious scene about death and funerals in the book. Death is a great leveller, and this idea was brought out very well indeed.

The comedy throughout this book was excellent. Being a big admirer of “Only Fools and Horses,” “Dad’s Army,” and the stunts of Michael Crawford in “Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em,” I can see how this material could be reworked as a television script or screenplay.

However, I felt that the editing could have been a lot tighter. There was one page which had an incomplete sentence. There were several instances of the word, “has,” instead of “as,” and there were some punctuation errors. I also noticed, on certain pages of the book, that the narrator over-used the word “Suddenly.”

There is a proliferation of adverbs in places, and occasional leakage blurs the boundary between the narrator and the lead character, Bisskit, who also has a fondness for them.

Although the pacing of the book was fairly good, I think more short, snappy sentences for the action sequences would have created a more dynamic effect and improved the pace and atmosphere.

I loved the originality and entertainment value of this story.

Overall, this book is very promising. I rate it at 4 stars, only because of the lack of editing in places.