Kev King

Kev King is the narrator of novelist C. M. Taylor's controversial, satirical football novel, Premiership Psycho (ISBN 978-1-84901-594-3).

An all action midfielder, 'compulsive shagger'^[1] and psychopathic customer vigilante who "targets those who have committed offences against consumerism",^[2] King shakes off a fall from grace to become an unnamed London Premier League club's star player, guiding the club to the treble.

Kev narrates the novel himself in an aggressive, slangy and product-obsessed "inventive language",^[3] which has led one critic to call Kev King a "stream of consciousness brand warrior".^[4] While Kev King's obsessions and neurosis have led to him being described as a "worthy and logical successor"^[5] to Bret Easton Ellis's American Psycho.

Controversy and reception

One critic of Premiership Psycho have found Kev King to be "arrogant" and "full of misplaced self importance",^[6] while another reviewer stated that the book was "detestable", "sexist", and, "aimed at those who see woman as objects".^[7]

Yet most reviewers have interpreted Kev King's abundant and exaggerated faults as a "merciless satire"^[8] on the shallow world of overpaid footballers, with FourFourTwo magazine calling the book "American Psycho for the hundred grand a week generation...", "genius" and "brilliantly appalling",^[9] while The Sun called Kev King a "huge mickey take on celebrity"^[10] and the Daily Mirror described him as "horribly entertaining".^[11]

Wider influence on culture

In July 2011, Kev King will be launching KevKingCouture, his own spoof fashion brand, skewering celebrity lifestyle pretensions.
A second Kevin King novel, to be set at the 2012 European Football Championship in Poland and Ukraine, has been commissioned and will be published in spring 2012.
TV rights to Premiership Psycho have been sold, with production aiming to start in 2012.

References

External links

C M Taylor tweets in the character of Kev King, @kevishly

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Friday, April 24, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.