The Echo Chamber: John Boyne

Product Information

This is highly mischievous, farcical, and fun, and is a great modern satire on the social media obsession of the past 10 or so years. Being in my early 40’s I have seen the rise of the World Wide Web and the introduction of social media sites: Hi5, Myspace, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram (sorry I never liked Snapchat and I just can’t get into Tik Tok – yet) However in the past two years, especially on Twitter and Instagram stories I’ve noticed a new breed of people cropping up; they are self-righteous, quick to act aggressive if an opinion does not match with theirs and get all their education from memes, which they share and follow as the gospel truth. The Echo Chamber is an easy-enough read but the targets feel too easy and predictable – woke Gen Z, oversexed reality stars, entitled BBC ‘talent’.

At the same time, he has an apparent sex addiction - having sex with anything that moves, including her children (adult children). Spanning five days, the novel is broken up into five parts, each prefaced with a familial memory of the Cleverley’s from bygone days timed in sync with key developments of social media platforms. It’s a satire about how phones and social media have created a society full of idiots, nasty trolls and attention-seekers. It’s another of his books that will almost certainly divide opinion but I for one thoroughly enjoyed it.George is a successful TV presenter who considers himself a ‘National Treasure’, a liberal at heart, success and privilege has turned him into a narcissistic dinosaur.

Their three children Nelson, Elizabeth and Achilles all come with issues and are happy to live in the family house rather than face the outside world.

He knows that his boss is actually more expendable than he, ‘the talent’, so he’s comfortable arguing with her. There are 511 pages and the narrative is split across five parts set on consecutive days in the present day (Mon to Fri) - each containing multiple named chapters. George, the patriarch, is a stalwart of television interviewing, a 'national treasure' (his words), his wife Beverley, a celebrated novelist (although not as celebrated as she would like), and their children, Nelson, Elizabeth, Achilles, various degrees of catastrophe waiting to happen. My 14th adult novel, ALL THE BROKEN PLACES, a sequel and companion novel to THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PYJAMAS, will be published in the UK on September 15th 2022, in the US and Canada on November 29th, and in many foreign language editions in late 2022 and 2023.

If you are looking to be entertained, and we all need that now more than ever, I really would suggest that you take a punt on this novel. Ripping into the ludicrousness of the criticism that has been levelled at him (“My own son is named after Nelson Mandela, for Christ’s sake”), he saves his most lethal venom for those levelling the criticism: “Every person vying with everyone else to see who can be the most affronted, who can show that they’re the most woke … Well, eff Twitter, Sophie!His 2006 novel The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas has sold more than 11 million copies worldwide and has been adapted for cinema, theatre, ballet and opera.

The winner of four Irish Book Awards, including Author of the Year, he is the author of fourteen novels for adults, six for younger readers and a collection of short stories. Thanks also to NetGalley and Random House/Transworld for the preview copy from which I’ve quoted, although I don’t think the selections I’ve chosen do justice to the book. My thanks to Random House UK, Transworld Publishers and NetGalley for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Some of the satirical humour is really good with some wit and dark irony which I enjoy especially the ripple effects!

I also felt the book could have been shorter, at 500+ pages it could have been edited down and it would have still had the same impact. Bestseller and was adapted for a feature film, a play, a ballet and an opera, selling around 11 million copies worldwide.