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Will Self, whom the Los Angeles Times calls "the hottest young novelist in England," demonstrates his razor-sharp wit in these nine new stories. Self's method depends upon taking an ordinary aspect of the world and then pushing it to its limit in furious absurdity. The short stories in Grey Area reflect the technical brilliance and satiric voice that have made him one of the most highly praised comic writers in a decade.
These are stories that delve into the modern psyche with unsettling and darkly satiric results. "Inclusion(r)" tells the story of a doctor who is illegally testing a new antidepressant made from bee excrement. "A Short History of the English Novel" brings us face to face with a pompous publisher who is greeted at every turn by countless rejected authors. In "The End of the Relationship" a woman who has been left by her boyfriend provokes--"like some emotional Typhoid Mary"--that same reaction among all the couples she goes to for comfort. The narrator of "Between the Conceits" declares without hesitation that London is controlled by only eight individuals, and, thankfully, he is one of them. Self's world in these pieces is both curiously familiar and hauntingly strange.
Published to critical acclaim in England, Grey Area is a dazzling collection by one of the most talented and original writers of his generation.
"If Magritte had been a writer instead of a painter, his work might have looked something like the nine stories in Grey Area.... Self is daring, original, and possessed of both an antic wit and a thoroughly jaundiced view of modern society."--The Washington Post
"The worlds [Self] sketches in Grey Area are as weird as you could ask and laugh-out-loud funny in the bargain.... The nine stories here collectively paint a picture of the Zeitgeist as it might be if God got bored one day and turned the extremity knob up to 11. As a satirist, Self is up there with American masters Terry Southern and Paul Krassner.... Self may be the sharpest, funniest comic writer working the short-story form today."--Houston Chronicle
"In Grey Area, Will Self again brilliantly explores the fine line between sanity and insanity, hitting uncomfortably close to home.... A book that challenges, absorbs, and delights."--USA Today
"[An] incomparable talent...he is a supreme recreator of the particular sensual detail of things, objects and surfaces. In Will Self's fictional universe, all reality is virtual reality, imagined into existence by individuals seeking a distraction from the meaningless internal roiling of themselves. This may not add up to much in terms of a philosophy--but in terms of fictional experience, Mr. Self is creating some of the most unusual and challenging landscapes around."--The New York Times Book Review
"Self's antic imagination and technical inventiveness have made him one of the most original young contemporary authors.... As far as style and unending cleverness are concerned, Will Self, sentence to sentence, is very much in command. And the ideas for the stories are ingenious."--Chicago Tribune
"Self is too talented a writer to ignore."--Entertainment Weekly
"Once again bringing piercing wit and narrative virtuosity to the short-story form...Self inlays subtle connections among all nine stories and repeatedly delves into themes of egotism, neurosis, charlatanism and conformity, and he does it all in crisp, economical prose enriched with the evocative diction of a confirmed logophile."--Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Will Self won the 1992 Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize. He is also the author of Cock & Bull and My Idea of Fun.
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Book Description Soft cover. Condition: Near Fine. No Jacket. 1st Edition. True First. Near Fine ring-bound with glossy pictorial card covers. Light wrinkling to lamination at front cover. Seller Inventory # MFE74943
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Book Description First British edition. First British edition. Fine spiraled paperback in pictorial wraps. Signed by the author. Seller Inventory # 21423
Book Description Soft cover. Condition: Fine. No Jacket. 1st Edition. Fine ring-bound with glossy pictorial card covers. Signed by the Author at title page. Signed by Author(s). Seller Inventory # MFE74941
Book Description Soft cover. Condition: Very Good. No Jacket. 1st Edition. 1st edition 1st printing card covers ring bound. Book VG+ condition with no inscriptions. Not a book club edition, ex library or a remainder. Please request a scan if required. Scans available on request. Seller Inventory # 001564
Book Description 8vo. Original spiral-bound pictorial card covers (softback) (edges spotted). Pp. 287, illus with b&w text decorations (no inscriptions). Seller Inventory # 140067
Book Description Spiral-bound. Condition: Very Good. *Autographed by author.* Hardcover. No dust jacket. Good binding and cover. Foxing to page ends. Clean, unmarked pages. Signed. Seller Inventory # 2008120087
Book Description Soft Cover. Condition: Very Good. No Jacket. Loose-leaf, plastic ring bound. Small amount of light creasing to covers. Very good, clean condition. Seller Inventory # 035882
Book Description Condition: Very Good. Bloomsbury 1994 First Edition First Printing - Issued Without Dust Jacket Spine creased during production and lightly rubbed, front cover creased, top corners lightly rubbed, one page top edge lightly creased and page edges lightly browned else Fine Uncorrected Proof. Nine short stories: Between the Conceits; The Indian Mutiny; A Short History of the English Novel; Incubus or The Impossibility of Self-Determination as the Desire; Scale; Chest; Grey Area; Inclusion ®; The End of the Relationship. Book. Seller Inventory # 113474
Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Near Fine. 1st Edition. UK1ST.EDITION.1ST.PRINTING.NEAR FIEN GHARDCOVERS WITH SPIRAL BINDING.99 & 47. Seller Inventory # 99DFKGB