Rating: 
Summary: a laugh riot
Review: A friend in Britain and I sent each other some favorite books. Since David hadn't read much SF/F, I sent him Jonathan Carroll's Bones of the Moon and James P. Blaylock's The Last Coin. In turn, he sent me some British humor: Tom Sharpe and Clive James. James' books were quite interesting--a well-written autobiography with some sly touches that never quite had me belly-laughing, but kept me reading. Sharpe, on the other hand, I fell into with a gusto. From page one of Riotous Assembly, my hands were doing double-duty turning pages and trying to keep my sides from splitting. Imagine the writer you would get if you mixed P.G. Wodehouse and Hunter Thompson, and then placed them in South Africa; that's Tom Sharpe. He indeed manages to combine the wit and language skills, as well as the awkward situations of Wodehouse with the sharpened pen of satire and low opinion of humans from Thompson, and his target is South Africa and the police forces there (I believe that he was jailed there for awhile, and ultimately deported). Upon finishing Riotous Assembly, I rushed to see if I could find any more by this Sharpe fellow. Luckily, Vintage has brought him across the sea for our enjoyment. Indecent Exposure is the sequel to Riotous Assembly and just as funny; perhaps even funnier, given the satire of the Dornford Yates club (a group of Englishmen who adore the veddy British writer Dornford Yates who is clearly an analog for Wodehouse) within the larger South African satire. I also read Wilt, in which he drops some of the satirical and plays the perverted Wodehouse more. Wilt is okay, but I would suggest you try the South African novels first. If you're like me, you'll have to read Wilt or any of his other novels then--just because you can't get enough of this amazing fellow.
Rating: 
Summary: Comic landmark
Review: Clearly one of the hallmark comic works in the English lanuage, somewhat sick, should certainly appeal to fans of M. Python or Roland Aktinson. I loved it, and this is one of those books that you never get back when you loan it out, order several copies....
Rating:
Summary: My kinde of Humor
Review: If you dont't finde this book funny, go see a therapist. Actualy my wife almost made me go see one, when I was laughing alout in our bed late at night while reading the book.
TWO THUMBS UP. :)
Rating: 
Summary: Keystone Kops Kapers in the RSA
Review: If you're ever in the mood for a hugely over-the-top farce about apartheid-era South Africa, well, this is the book for you. Sharpe spent a decade there before being deported as a subversive, and after reading this unrestrained comic pummeling of the RSA, one can only wonder why it took the authorities so long to give him the boot. Indeed authority is target number one in this fast-paced story set in the small city of Piemburg. It all starts when an elderly semi-aristocratic Englishwoman calls the police to report that she's shot her Zulu cook. Refusing police Kommandant van Heerden's best attempts to cover up the matter, she reveals that the cook was also her lover, which so appalls him that he immediately declares a state of emergency and mobilizes the entire police force. And so begins a massive comedy of errors, in which a "Kaffir-Killer" Konstabel Els plays a large role, as does the slimy Luitenant Veerkamp, and matters take a turn for the utterly bizarre, as rubber fetishes, bondage, a drunken bishop, porno films, cross dressing, and penile novocain injections are all introduced to the plot. As one might surmise from such a litany, the plot spins ever more wildly out of control until events come to a head at--appropriately enough--the insane asylum. All the antics are intermittently funny, and it's somewhat refreshing to see the horrors of apartheid treated with rather less than the usual gravitas. Worth a read if you've got a special interest in South Africa or a soft spot for broad farce, otherwise not all that noteworthy
Rating: 
Summary: Funny but unexceptional
Review: In many respects, apartheid South Africa provides a great setting for farces and satirical novels. Tom Sharpe ably exploits the possibilities in this tale involving an interracial affair, a bishop who ends up in the wrong place at the wrong time, and a murder investigation by irredeemably dumb and racist Afrikaner policemen.
Parts of Riotous assembly are very funny and Sharpe maintains the hectic pace of the narrative throughout. But in the end, I was disappointed with this book. My dissatisfaction had nothing to do with being an Afrikaner or with an aversion to dark humour. Carl Hiaasen is one of my favourite authors, and I thoroughly enjoyed the movie version of Sharpe's Wilt. My problem was with the characters, who seemed to have no personalities whatsoever beyond the stereotypes they represent. To truly enjoy a book (even a farce), I have to develop an interest in or establish some kind of rapport with the characters, and in the case of Riotous assembly this never happened.
Rating:
Summary: Dangerously Funny
Review: Possibly the funniest book in the English language. I must have for any dedicated humor collector!
Rating:
Summary: simply the best
Review: Riotous assembly and its sequel (Indecent exposure) are in my opinion two of the funniest books I have ever read. Far better than Wilt, Porterhouse blue or Blot on the Landscape. Sharpe manages to come up with hilarious situations and misunderstanding on every page. Try it, and try not to laugh when it comes to the ming...
Rating:
Summary: I have to agree
Review: THE FUNNIEST BOOK ON EARTH!!A roaring romp of a book. Brilliant satire at it's best.
Certainly a must read for lovers of dark humour. Tom sharp also outpaces himself in 'Indicent exposure', 'Blot on a landscape' and 'Wilt'.
A master of exuberant satire that evidently is not content with providing a rib-cracking read, but also exposes a darker side of humanity we should not forget- the evil of racism and discrimination.
Rating:
Summary: Lunaticy, sheer lunacy!!
Review: THE FUNNIEST BOOK ON EARTH!!The innermost workings of Tom Sharp's mind would indeed be an interesting intellectual pilgrimage for a Psychiatrist. Tom Sharp is a national security risk to any nation, he should as well be banned from Earth but unfortunately he would have infected some of us before then.
Rating:
Summary: Great perverse fun
Review: This is the first of Tom Sharpe's two novels set in South Africa. This is a very funny book. It is very perverse and zany fun. The book begins with the murder of a black house wroker by a member of a prominent English family in the city of Piemburg. Enter the police. There is Kommandant van Heerden, who wants nothing more than to be English, Konstabel Els, who is renowned as a killer of blacks, and Luitenant Veerkramp, who is one of the slimiest and wiliest characters in the Piemburg police force. A routine police investigation turns into an armed confrontation between the unwitting members of the Piemburg police force, while van Heerden is unwillingly seduced by the murderer he is investigating. These are just a few of the hijinks that ensue as the police's irrational actions keep making the situation worse. This book is excellent because Sharpe is able to expose the irrationality of apartheid and the actions of the authorities to keep this practice going. After reading this book, there is little wonder in my mind why Sharpe was expelled from South Africa in the '70s.
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