Title: Are You Dave Gorman?
Authors: Dave Gorman & Danny Wallace
Publisher: Ebery Press
ISBN: 0-09-187964-7
Price: £9.99
Classification: Travel (this is the classification that is given by the publishers) Are You Dave Gorman? is a book charting the weird story of Dave Gorman and Danny Wallace as they traipsed across the World looking for others with the name David Gorman. It all starts with a drunken bet involving Tequila. The bet turns into a quest to find a Dave Gorman for every card in the deck (including the jokers but not that extra card you get). It is interestingly written in a style where both writers write independantly of each other with their parts distinguished by different looking text. Dave Gormanis in a bold Times New Roman typeface whereas Danny Wallace has his text in a skinny Times New Roman typeface.

The book starts from the fateful day that Danny and Dave met, through the drunken bet that started the whole thing, all the way to the completion of the task. This includes a rollercoaster of emotions for all involved throughout as they go through deep depression to ecstatic highs (and a fair bit of drinking in the British tradition). There is an element of romance (if it can be called that) from Danny and his girlfriend Hanne Langeland Knudsen as well as general idiocy from Dave.

This all amalgomates into an entertaining read which allows you to see through the eyes of the authors. Whether this is purely autobiographical or not is debateable but they did actually get a full collection of Dave Gormans (and if you don't believe them then there are pictures in the middle of the book of all the Dave Gormans as well as some other random photos). There was also a BBC television show of this quest (which is mentioned in the book) that was really very funny. The program was on at around 11:00pm (they changed the time I think occaisionally) so few people got to know about it till later on in the series. I started watching at about the 5th Dave Gorman. It was surprisingly easy to get into the swing of this program to the point you wanted to start asking everyone you knew whether they were a Dave Gorman (are you one?).

This is a completely weird story and is quite funny at places. Its not a side splittingly funny book (unlike the Red Dwarf book Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers which is a very funny British book) but its good enough to while away the time. Though the quest the two guys undertake is amusing at first this doesn't last all the way through the book. Fortunately though Dave Gorman seems to get weirder as the book progresses due to his obsession with the quest. This can lead to some moments that make you snigger while sitting on the bus.

No Danny Wallaces have been met.

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