Set in Cape Town, the main character is Jason Brydon - "Jase" to his friends. The downsides for Jason: he hates his job as a paint salesman almost as much as he hates his boss, his credit card is maxed out, his dad is an alcoholic and he doesn’t wish to talk about his sister. And to top it all off he is looking for the perfect woman to be at the side of the “Jasonator”. But all is not going as well as it should…
Jason decides that his life will turn around if he sets some New Year’s resolutions…one of them being to get 250 friends on Facebook. Easy, he tells himself…but in reality the odds are stacked against the Jasonator. He may have the best collection of branded clothes in the paint retail industry -- and let's face it, nothing is more important than that, right? -- but turning his life around is going to require a lot more than just a change of attire.
We join him on the 1st of January 2010, and the whole book is written in a very agreeable "diary" format, with each day bringing something new to our knowledge of Jason and his life. We live his back-and-forth emails to his mother and read Twitter posts and Facebook status updates.
An accomplished rugby coach, founder of Rugby 365, LLB graduate and recent MA grad from UCT in creative writing, Dobson has very little in common with the “Jasonator”. Dobson likens his character to that of Alan Bennett’s Writing Home, a collection of prose and diary entries. “Like me, he’s sensitive and disorganised,” he reflects.
This quick and easy to read diary format will ensure a pleasurable read, but be warned…Year of the Gherkin is light-hearted and hilarious.
(You can even see what the protagonist Jason Brydon is up to on his own Facebook page or Twitter account.)