Flash in the Paan

Flashman
George MacDonald Fraser
Harper Collins

OMG.  I am soooooo behind on this blog.  Since finishing Flashman almost two weeks ago, I have managed to read quite a number of books.  So many, in fact, that my head is absolutely cluttered with thoughts and I'm having some difficulty recalling what it was, exactly, that I hated about this novel.

Let me see  ... oh yeah, the N word.  Fraser uses it quite liberally and it sort of got on my nerves.  Set in Victorian England, the novel's eponymous hero, Harry Flashman, is kicked out of Rugby for public drunkenness and convinces his father to buy him his colours.  Once in the army, he is sent to India and then on to Afghanistan where he gets into heaps of trouble.  He's a complete cad, a total coward, and aside from his handsome frame and knack for languages, has no redeeming qualities.  Because there is an entire series dedicated to Flashman, I thought, mistakenly, that the writing would be good and the character intriguing.  Not so on either count.  This is one example of Grit Lit that I should have left on shelf.  One begruding dueling pistol out of five.