Title: Dishonesty is the Second-Best Policy
Author: David Mitchell
Type: Non-Fiction
Page Count/Review Word Count: 264
Rating: 4/5
This is basically a collection of articles that Mitchell wrote for his newspaper column, and that means that we’ve got a lot of different topics to take a look at here. It’s basically the usual fare that you’d expect from him, railing at the injustices of the world and the bizarreness of everyday life.
I should point out that this is David Mitchell the comedian and not David Mitchell who wrote Cloud Atlas, although both of them are worth reading. Comedian Mitchell is one of my favourites thanks to both Peep Show and That Mitchell and Webb Look, and it’s interesting that it doesn’t feel dated even though it was written before the pandemic, which changed half the things that he talks about here.
If you like Mitchell’s sharp and acerbic take on things then you’re going to find quite a lot to enjoy here. I particularly enjoyed it when he was writing about art and artistic form, such as when he was musing on why the chairs on theatres are so unnecessarily uncomfortable, especially given that they don’t stop people from falling asleep.
All in all, then, if you’re up for an easy-to-read piece of non-fiction then I’d recommend checking this one out. Just be warned that because it’s a collection of newspaper articles, it’s not as though it has a particularly natural rhythm to it. It stops and starts, and that’s just fine. Happy reading, folks.
