Who is Tom Ditto?

by Danny Wallace

[Leah]

When I heard about Danny Wallace’s second novel Who Is Tom Ditto? I was SO excited to read it. Charlotte Street is one of my favourite novels, ever, and I was super chuffed he was releasing a new book so quickly! Danny’s such a clever, witty writer, and he’s unlike an writer I’ve ever come across before. I was proper chuffed to receive a copy to review, and I couldn’t wait to dive in and see if it was just as good – if not better – than Charlotte Street. I’ll tell you this for nothing – it’s entirely different, that’s for sure. You would never guess he’d written both books, but the warmth and humour is still there, but Who Is Tom Ditto? was the most bonkers story I think I’ve ever read in my life!

I have to be completely honest, when I was 100 or so pages into Who Is Tom Ditto? I was panicking. Proper panicking. The novel was confusing me. Tom seemed a bit weird. It just wasn’t clicking for me and I was TERRIFIED. But, because I was tired (and I was) I put the book down and promised myself I would return to it on my next day off, and I did, and it picked up from there. I think part of the confusion at the beginning is that Tom is confused. So if the main character – and your narrator – is confused, than the reader is also going to be a bit confused! We’re thrown into the novel with no welcome, no how-do-you-do, just Hayley vanishing into thin air, and leaving a note that says she’s “gone, but hasn’t left Tom” and Tom has loads of questions – where’s she gone? Why’s she gone? What has happened to make her go? It’s a crazy time, I will admit. But if you find yourself lost and confused, my advice would be to stick with it because it does eventually make sense (believe it or not).

For me, the novel really took off with the arrival of Pia. Pia pulled Tom out of his funk, and she brought the novel bursting to life. She stopped Tom from sticking with his usual routines of sleeping, waking at stupid-o’clock for work, then going back home to wallow over Hayley and she brought a bit of adventure to Tom’s life, with the rather bizarre hobby of following people. When I first heard of her hobby – and the fact there’s a group called CC dedicated to said hobby, I was skeptical. I mean, COME ON! People really do that?! You’re joking, right?! But, actually, it was the greatest hobby ever. Yes, a bit daft and unexpected, not something you come across in every day life, but the philosophy behind it is solid, and I can sort of see why people do that. I could perhaps see myself doing that, if it would get me out of my Tom-like rut of work, sleep, read. It’s a bit stalkery, but I could see the fun in following people and I enjoyed the adventures it led to! Pia is just one of those characters you immediately love – a bit nuts, but with an absolute heart of gold. The girl’s a legend.

Who Is Tom Ditto? was the most surprising book I have ever read. There was a minute there where I wasn’t sure what in the world I was reading, but Wallace pulled it back and when I finished the novel I was sat, smiling like an idiot, hardly able to believe what this book had put me through. It was nuts, in the best possible way. Danny Wallace is one of the cleverest writers around, he’s super talented, and isn’t afraid to write something a bit different to anything else you might ever read, and I love him for that. I love being challenged when I’m reading, and Who Is Tom Ditto? challenged me properly. You finish the book and you’re like, “Wow, that was actually pretty amazing,” and it was! I adored the characters, I adore the whole ideology behind following people to try and make your life a bit more interesting, and it threw up lots of great questions. The missing Marmoset was a highlight – poor Binky! Throughout the novel Pia and Tom question whether a male and a female can just be friends, and I’m still not sure where I stood on that, because I thought they clicked SO WELL that there had to be the possibility of more, and I wondered if Wallace would go there (you will have to read the book to find out, and I rarely say that, because I think it sounds stupid), but the ending was definitely interesting. Who Is Tom Ditto? is one of those books you must rave about because it was just that clever, and that interesting, and that warm, and, bizarrely enough, I loved it!