24 September 2015, The Tablet

Balkan mission

by Julian Margaret Gibbs

 
Love, Sex and Other Foreign Policy GoalsJesse Armstrong A recording of the debut novel by the writer of TV’s Peep Show and The Thick of It, this made me laugh out loud. It is 1994 and the aimless but intelligent Andy has fallen in with the vain and foolish Von, a posh student at Manchester University. When Von introduces Andy to his adopted sister Penny, Andy falls madly in love, leaves his pointless job and hares off with Penny, her brother and a group of her rebellious, well-meaning  friends to the Balkans to bring “aid” (a few bags of rice) and perform a “peace play” written by Penny herself. Andy is an endearing anti-hero who, like all anti-heroes, is often brave despite himself. Deeply bothered by the slaughter in the Balkans, he is nevertheless t
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