Book: Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About by Mil Millington


Hilarious novel

Mil Millington
Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About
Villard, 2002
ISBN: 0-8129-6666-X
$12.95
373 pages

Mil Millington has a hugely funny website, www.thingsmygirlfriendandihavearguedabout.com, where he describes, well, things that he and his girlfriend have argued about. They seem to argue a lot. I gather that he lives in northern England with his German girlfriend, Margret, and their two sons whom her calls First Born and Second Born. His book Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About is about Pel Dalton who lives in northern England with his German girlfriend, Ursula, and their two sons whom he sometimes calls First Born and Second Born. Pel and Ursula also argue a lot. But the book isn't autobiographical. It's just about someone in similar circumstances.

In the book, Pel works in a university library and, apart from arguing with Ursula, leads a pretty uneventful life. Naturally, that soon changes as events overtake the hapless Pel. The book is at least as funny as Mr Millington's website. I think I averaged a chuckle every two pages and a laugh every ten. Indeed, there were a couple of spots where I had to put the book down because I was laughing too hard to read. Here's a small extract; Pel has just finished mowing the lawn and Ursula asks him if he has finished (p. 7):

        "Yes, I've finished."
        "You're not going to go around the edges with
    the clippers, then?"
        "That's right. Precisely that meaning of finished."
        "I really can't understand you. You always do
    this kind of thing -- why do a job badly?"
        "Because it's easier. Duh."

Over on this page, Mr Millington says that the book has a serious point. I'm not sure I know what it is, perhaps something about the nature of human relationships. But that doesn't make me like it any less well. Mr Millington's next novel has already arrived and I'm looking forward to reading it.

Posted: Tue - February 10, 2004 at 04:05   Main   Category: 

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