So, I'm fighting my way through Gary Sheynart's novel, "Absurdistan". Though all the cover blurbs bill it as being a brilliant piece of satire, witty, biting, etc., um, it's not. Gary's not a particularly good, or insightful, writer, unfortunately. There are, I'll grant you, attempts at humour and social commentary, but nothing the average eight-year-old couldn't have come up with. Oh, well - it's what I get for grabbing a book in a hurry to read on the bus.