Timely. I was telling someone, no that's not right, I was insisting, that they beg, borrow or steal a copy of Budding Prospects by T.C.Boyle.

For anyone who wants to know how to combine being broke, in love, and with what the untrained exotic herb farmer should expect, and that from his fellow man as much as inscrutable nature, then this is the book. It's also one of the funniest books I've ever read; for years, I'd hung that garland around Confederacy of Dunces, but I've handed it on to it's true, rightful owner, Budding Prospects. Don't think I'm abandoning the former, I'm not, still a pungently funny, bittersweet book, and no one can challenge the power of the writing either, whilst it would be churlish in the extreme to forget the literal sacrifice of the author, and the perseverance of his mother after his death to get it published. Just there's a new kid on the block in a sense now.

I re-read Budding Prospects over a short period of time last week, not for the first time either, I'd enjoyed it years ago, so much so that I'd thrust it in to the hands of a relative, and gone eyeball to eyeball: "You just gotta read this...you have, don't talk to me until you have !" That was years ago and a red-hot appeal, a collar grabber, fizzled away until only the embers of the memory remained. Until last week when I re-read it; I laughed so much I actually strained my vocal chords and for a time was a temporary baritone. Got my English squeak back now though.

Pressing the flesh and spreading the word when it comes to a good, punchy, unforgettable piece of writing, comes to me very easily. I do have something of an inner zealot. I've been on the trail pounding the message about this all week. So I was delighted when someone I know told me that she read it, and in fact, had digested a lot more of what he had written than I have. I realised then that I'd missed some of his later books, for the past day or so, I've been trawling bookstores looking for those I've missed. I found one: Talk, Talk. I bought it and it's been uncomfortable reading; it's all about identity theft, and since I had my bag stolen, this is one topic that I've not been quite able to stop thinking about. Timely? Coincidence?