The person in question is the potty-mouthed Raymond Gunt, “accomplished videographer and connoisseur of womanly charm” and “a living, walking, talking, hot steaming pile of pure id”, who is sent by his ex-wife, “an atomic bomb of pain”, to an obscure tropical island in the South Pacific called Kiribati to work on an American reality TV show called Survival, along with his homeless Man Friday and a cast of equally loathsome characters.
His misadventures, interspersed with witty Wiki-style entries, provide the framework for Douglas Coupland’s familiar preoccupations with nuclear war, celebrity culture, the damaged ecosystem, dysfunctional families and our post-internet brains. Which makes for an amusing enough sendup of modern life, but for the sharpness of this satire, Coupland forgoes the sentimentality that gives his other novels their wistful depth. As a vile character study, Worst. Person. Ever. is a mission accomplished, and one that gives you no qualms about being voted off the island.
mgannon@thenational.ae
Plan to boost public schools
A major shake-up of government-run schools was rolled out across the country in 2017. Known as the Emirati School Model, it placed more emphasis on maths and science while also adding practical skills to the curriculum.
It was accompanied by the promise of a Dh5 billion investment, over six years, to pay for state-of-the-art infrastructure improvements.
Aspects of the school model will be extended to international private schools, the education minister has previously suggested.
Recent developments have also included the introduction of moral education - which public and private schools both must teach - along with reform of the exams system and tougher teacher licensing requirements.
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