If Winter Don't

Barry Pain's deliciously vicious parody dissects A.S.M. Hutchinson's beloved bestseller 'If Winter Comes' with a blade sharp enough to draw blood. Our hero, Luke Sharper, is a man of modest talents and maximal self-pity, a failed poet turned something-or-other who watches his marriage to the long-suffering Mabel crumble while he pursues the ethereal Jona with all the subtlety of a distracted puppy. Pain mocks the earnest romanticism of the original with devastating precision, exposing the self-important melodrama beneath Hutchinson's prose. The satire is affectionate enough to be funny, cruel enough to be satisfying. It is a book written by one author for the entertainment of others who considered themselves too sophisticated for the original. If you've ever rolled your eyes at literary pretension, this is your revenge in miniature.