Checking Out by Nick Spalding – Reviewed by Guy Portman
Nathan is a young, well-off musician with a gorgeous girlfriend, a sportscar and some exceedingly expensive bi-fold doors. He is also successful, thanks to his childish creation ‘The Foodies’; a collection of singing, dancing vegetables and fruit. Nathan’s life would be perfect were it not for the fact that he’s been diagnosed with an incurable brain tumour and is going to die.
The dire diagnosis culminates in the musician questioning everything from his vapid relationship to his materialistic outlook on life. What follows are a host of bizarre escapades and misadventures entailing a deranged donkey, drama-performing elderly people, a bizarre cult, evangelical Christians and more besides. Along the way he falls in love.
Checking Out could best be described as a black comedy sprinkled with hope. Many will be drawn to its protagonist Nathan due to his wry wit and likeable personality. The book’s fast-paced, dialogue-heavy content appealed to this reader, and he would not hesitate in recommending it to all aficionados of the humour genre.
