Newman, Robert 1964–

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Newman, Robert 1964–

PERSONAL: Born July 7, 1964.

ADDRESSES: Home and office—P.O. Box 4458, Worthing BN11 2WL, England.

CAREER: Comedian and activist. Performer on The Mary Whitehouse Experience on Radio One, 1989–91.

AWARDS, HONORS: Writer's Guild award, and Radio Times comedy award, 1992, both for best new performer in television comedy.

WRITINGS:

Dependence Day (novel), Century (London, England), 1994.

Manners (novel), Hamish Hamilton (London, England), 1998.

The Fountain at the Center of the World (novel), Verso (London, England), 2003, Soft Skull Press (Brooklyn, NY), 2004.

Also author of stage show From Caliban to the Taliban: 500 Years of Humanitarian Intervention.

SIDELIGHTS: Robert Newman gained fame as a political comedian in Great Britain, particularly after performing as a member of the satirical television program The Mary Whitehouse Experience on Radio One. Turning to writing, he has expressed his political views and his humor in novels such as Dependence Day, Manners, and The Fountain at the Center of the World. He is also the author of the stage play From Caliban to the Taliban: 500 Years of Humanitarian Intervention, which was a sell-out for several months at London's Soho Theatre.

Originally rejected by publishers, The Fountain at the Center of the World was eventually released to positive reviews. The protagonist is Evan Hatch, a public-relations specialist working for multinational corporations. Well paid and comfortable, Evan feels he is on top of the world, until he is diagnosed with leukemia. The news sends him on a desperate search for a long-lost brother, not because he wants to get to know his sibling but because he hopes a bone marrow transplant may keep him alive. When Evan finally locates his brother, Chano Salgado, he learns that his sibling is a radical militant who is living as a fugitive after blowing up an oil pipeline. Another plot twist is introduced when it is revealed that Salgado has a long-lost son, who is now searching for his own father. The climax of the novel takes place during riots that disrupted a meeting of the World Trade Organization in Seattle, Washington. Peter Whittaker, writing in the New Internationalist, found the plot of the novel implausible but nevertheless praised Newman's depiction of the struggle between corporate greed and social good. "His tale of people-trafficking and identity-theft paints an accurate and harrowing picture of the human cost of neoliberalism," concluded Whittaker. A Publishers Weekly reviewer described the book as "intense but flawed" by excessive detail, concluding: "With a bit more clarity, this might have been a superb novel, but instead it is a compromised testimonial to Newman's formidable range, intelligence and talent."

Newman's anti-globalization theme is also strongly voiced in his comedy show From Caliban to the Taliban: 500 Years of Humanitarian Intervention. Here, Newman pulls together incidents from over four centuries of history to comment on the state of the modern world. While acknowledging that the presentation is at times unfocused and bogged down in intellectual details, Steve Bennett noted in a Chortle online review: "This show is often fascinating—especially in its lesser-known historical notes such as America's investment in Nazi Germany or the Middle Eastern origins of the First World War—occasionally hilarious, and always passionate. Which isn't a bad combination."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Kirkus Reviews, December 1, 2003, review of The Fountain at the Center of the World, p. 1377.

New Internationalist, December, 2003, Peter Whittaker, review of The Fountain at the Center of the World, p. 31.

Publishers Weekly, December 1, 2003, review of The Fountain at the Center of the World, p. 41.

ONLINE

Chortle Online, http://www.chortle.co.uk/ (September 1, 2005), Steve Bennett, review of From Caliban to the Taliban: 500 Years of Humanitarian Intervention.