Tough Tough Toys For Tough Tough Boys - Amazon.co.uk reader reviews
Posted by Chris M on January 31st, 20067 reader reviews
Archive for January, 2006
Tough Tough Toys For Tough Tough Boys - Washington Post
Posted by Chris M on January 31st, 2006Liesl Schillinger, May 1999
“There are two kinds of writer: the kind that would relish the chance to riff on gristle – updating Proust’s “madeleine” moment by calling up as many vile impressions of humanity as possible – and the kind that would not. In his coldly accomplished new book of stories, “Tough, Tough Toys for Tough, Tough Boys,” British writer Will Self once again flaunts his membership in the first group. In the title story, the book’s centerpiece, a misogynistic, substance-abusing misanthrope named Bill tools toward Glasgow in his turbo-charged car, slugging back whiskey and letting acid-washed memories of failed relationships slosh through his brain. He picks up a hitchhiker on the way, mostly, it seems, so that there will be someone in the car besides himself to hate.”
Read the full review
Tough Tough Toys For Tough Tough Boys - Bookpage Review
Posted by Chris M on January 31st, 2006Charles Wyrick, 1999
“No, these are not bad jokes or out-takes from The Twilight Zone, these are quintessential Will Self creations. For all their outrageousness, these tales radiate a narrative charm. For every goofy plot turn you’ll find an equally well plotted character or adroitly spun metaphor. Whether dealing with nerdy parents or hardened drug addicts, Self nails his subjects with an exacting, invigorating stylistic temper like that of the truly great satirists. Surely Self is one of them — if that’s not too immodest a proposal.”
Tough Tough Toys For Tough Tough Boys - Amazon.com Reader Reviews
Posted by Chris M on January 31st, 20067 reader reviews
“Will Self borrows a gimmick used by Kafka, Borges, and in one not-very-succesful story by Fitzgerald (A Diamond as Big as the Ritz) and, to some extent, used in all science fiction. An impossible or supernatural event is treated naturalistically, or accepted deadpan without comment by the characters.(Isaac Asimov Magazine stories do this well).
Another trademark, reminiscent of the dirty Scottish shock-writers, is descriptions of drug and alcohol use from the point of view of the user. He also favors effects that used to be called Grand Guignol and are now called splatterpunk.
These devices are used as the hinges of his plots and the entertainment values of his stories often depends on how compelling you find them. Apart from them he is a witty and perceptive satirist with some wonderful prose such as his description of the small Suffolk town “landlocked by the shifting dunes of social trends” where “the landlords of the three desultory pubs on the main street drew pints for themselves in the cool, brown, afternoon interiors of their establishments.” - D.P. Birkett
Perfidious Man - Amazon.co.uk Reader Reviews
Posted by Chris M on January 31st, 20061 review
“As the blurb describes, it centres around the concept of masculinity. The role of the male in the modern world. After forty years of feminism, Will Self and David Gamble seem to suggest that not only has traditional male-gender roles been virtually erased, but there does not seem to any sufficient replacement. The ‘New Man’ seeming to be something of an optimistic sociological euphemism for the empty shell which rests in its place.
Great Apes - Amazon.com Reader Reviews
Posted by Chris M on January 31st, 200648 reader reviews
“Great Apes was a waste of time to read. The author was obviously trying to comment on modern society through a “Planet Of The Apes” type gimmick, but the payoff isn’t worth the effort. The author really doesn’t have much of anything important to say, and comes off as more interested in painting a picture of what the world would be like if chimps were dominant, rather than saying anything new about what humans are like. It would have worked better as light reading sci-fi where the fantasy setting *is* the story. When I got to the end I thought “Is that it?”. Self thinks he’s pretty clever but the gimmick gets in the way. In the end, it wasn’t worth my time.” - Curran Filer
How The Dead Live - Amazon.com Reader Reviews
Posted by Chris M on January 31st, 200617 reader reviews
“Lily is a cynical character. Little is spared her criticism, especially England and the English. There’s great fun in all of this - Lily, despite her cynicism, or perhaps because of it, becomes a sympathetic character, and many of her observations about England rang (uncomfortably) true. There’s lots more to enjoy in this novel, as Self is an imaginative writer, despite the fact that for lots of the time the reader is in familiar “Self country”, where Jewishness, drug culture and hospitals figure prominently.
Great Apes - Amazon.co.uk Reader Reviews
Posted by Chris M on January 31st, 200623 reader reviews
“Once you get over the opening of the book - which will put you off enjoying sex for a goodish while - and move into the London of the chimps, the humour really kicks in. Really the joke is no deeper than a PG Tips commercial - the juxtaposition of putting chimpanzees in human clothing in a human world - but it is superbly realized. You’ll come to love the terms ‘pant-hoot’, ‘knuckle-walk’ and ‘go bipedal’. The way Self handles this anthropomorphising of chimps, and primatomorphising of humans, is just genius. The chimps are civilised in all ways, but their chimpness is retained and manifested is hilarious ways; sub-adults (teenage youths) are still sullen and insolent, the eminent professor will arrive home to his Group and discuss his day at the office whilst all around is vigorous inter-generational incestuous mating and casual displays of swollen anuses (perhaps the unpleasant human sexual behaviour at the start of the book was intended to contrast with the innocent and functional mating of the chimps, to show what dark shadows we humans throw on what is essentially the same act).” - Nigel Collier
Feeding Frenzy - Amazon.co.uk Reader Reviews
Posted by Chris M on January 31st, 20062 reader reviews
“Though I have never been able to get into Will Self’s fiction which I always experience as somewhat laboured, I found this collection of previously published magazine and newspaper essays, restaurant reviews and short features instant, engaging, thoughtful and provoking, insightful, often laugh out loud funny, subversive and full of humanity. From a review of an English Country Garden restaurant experienced on acid to Self interviewing JG Ballard via an essay on The Westway, if that sounds good to you, give it a go.” A Reader
How The Dead Live - Amazon.co.uk Reader Reviews
Posted by Chris M on January 31st, 200620 reader reviews and Amazon’s own editorial review
“Finally, 155 pages into the thing I found the plot developed and the pages instantly became more turnable: a real story, at last. The same characters that had frustrated me in the first six chapters were fleshed out with real personalities and direction, and sub-plots I cared about appeared as if from nowhere. If Self set out to deliberately starve the reader in the first half of the story to force him to gorge himself on the second, then it worked on me. Granted, the final twist in the plot is rather kitsch and you can see it coming from a hundred paces, but by then I was entertained enough by the main characters’ destinies that I didn’t mind.” - Anthony Charlton
