Away Laughing on a Fast Camel is
the fifth novel for teens by Louise Rennison that started out with Angus,
Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging.  It has to be said that her heroine
Georgia Nicholson hasn’t changed much over the years.  Indeed, she hasn’t even
got much older.  She is still much more interested in boys than she is in her school
work, and best of all, she has the same wonderful language that makes her so
funny.  You have to work out what her different phrases mean.  For example,
about one morning at school, she writes

I said to the ace gang as we trailed out of Assembly
to R.E., "What started out as a schiessenhausen day has turned out
to be a groovy gravy day."

The "ace gang" is Georgia’s small group
of closest female friends.  "Assembly" is the daily gathering of the
whole school at the start of the day.  The glossary at the end of the book
explains that that the literal meaning of this is a house that you poo in.  As
you might imagine, "groovy gravy" means more than good. 

Of course, there are new developments in this
story.  Georgia’s ferocious cat Angus gets a new play friend, Gordy, and the
two of them get into even more trouble.  Georgia’s father buys a three-wheel
car, the Robin Reliant, which Georgia finds profoundly embarrassing.  At
school, Georgia is reading the literary classic Blithering Heights. 
Although her boyfriend, the Sex God, has gone to New Zealand (Kiwi-a-gogo land)
for six months, his band the Stiff Dylans has found a replacement singer,
Massimo, who is half-Italian and half-American, and completely gorgey
(gorgeous).  Readers who already know Georgia well won’t be surprised to learn
that although she is pining away for the Sex God, she still finds time to stalk
Massimo.  But they may be shocked to learn that she gets advice about how to do
this from her ex-boyfriend Dave the Laugh, and that during the advice sessions,
she and Dave engage in some heavy snogging. 

It is not as if Rennison provides great
psychological insight into the teenage mind or delves into any deep
philosophical questions.  But what she does do very well is give is an
excellent quick-read, with wonderful language, full of great humor, especially
for Anglophiles.  If laughter is the best medicine, then Away Laughing on a
Fast Camel is self-help. 

Links:

·       
Review of Dancing in
My Nuddypants

·       
Review of On the Bright
Side, I’m Now the Girlfriend of a Sex God

·       
Review of Knocked Out by
My Nunga-Nungas

·       
Review of Angus, Thongs
and Full-Frontal Snogging

© 2004 Christian
Perring. All rights reserved.

Christian
Perring, Ph.D., is Academic Chair of the Arts & Humanities
Division and Chair of the Philosophy Department at Dowling College, Long Island. He is also
editor of Metapsychology Online Review.  His main research is on
philosophical issues in medicine, psychiatry and psychology.