Malcolm and Juliet (Paperback)

Here is the novel equivalent to a modern TV sit-com. Providing moments of farce and slapstick it takes on quirky but relatively credible teenagers and puts them in extraordinary situations (Malcom decides to make a documentary on sex), and watches them behave strangely and hilariously. MALCOLM AND JULIET is different in tone and style from anything else published in New Zealand and is full of overt sitcom elements: sharp, smart one-liners, stretched situations, a cast of idiosyncratic characters, a 'sexy' theme and a minimum of description. Beckett's novel not only tackles teenagers' main preoccupation, it undercuts, subverts and sends it up as well. Hilarious, with a marvellous sting in the tail.