In a Nutshell: With Fup you won’t know exactly where the story’s taking you, but don’t worry! Just sit back, relax and enjoy the thrilling ride. Make sure you do though because the ‘thrilling ride’ is all over before you know it.
It’s difficult with a book as short as Fup to provide afterthoughts of any great length or depth without giving too much of the story away, so unusually for me my afterthoughts on this one are going to be brief and succinct. I’ve also already said a fair amount about this new reissue from Canongate Books in my forethoughts, so if you haven’t already skimmed those, then that would be a good place to start.
As far as my afterthoughts go though, I guess the question I really need to answer is whether Fup lived up to my rather high expectations, which have built up because of all of the glowing praise that’s around for this story? Well in answering that I’d have to say ALMOST, but not quite!
It’s irrefutable that what there is of Fup is good, really good and it shows Jim Dodge off to be the talented author that he so obviously is. However the crucial phrase in that last sentence is ‘what there is of the story’ because Fup is all over way too quickly. I guess a great analogy would be to compare Fup to a roller-coaster ride, and not because it’s full of ups and downs (although there are certainly a few of those), but because it’s a thrilling ride which comes to an end all too soon. Just like a roller-coaster ride though, Fup is a story that one is eager to return to time and time again.
So a real shame that Fup is so short-lived, and a shame too that Dodge has felt compelled to drop a few ‘F Bombs’ into his narrative, making it inappropriate for all age groups. Putting those two things aside however, Fup is still a worthy little read, enhanced greatly in this new reissue by Emma Dibben’s superlative artwork. Perfect for those who like their reading fixes short ‘n’ sweet!
Rating: 
Book Details
Publisher: Canongate
Published: 02 April 2009 (UK)
Format: Paperback
Pages: 117 pages
ISBN: 9781847673251
About Rob
Thanks for the review, Rob. And don’t forget http://www.fup-duck.co.uk/!
says:
Wow deeply honoured to have you drop by Andrea. Thanks for ‘heads up’ on the Fup link although I’m not overly happy that you’ve given me a ‘good’ reason not to get my work done
).
Warmest
Rob