De Abaitua, Matthew (2019) Self & I: A memoir of literary ambition. Eye Books, UK. ISBN 9781785630798. Official URL: http://eye-books.com/books/self-i
De Abaitua, Matthew (2019) Self & I: A memoir of literary ambition. Eye Books, UK. ISBN 9781785630798. Official URL: http://eye-books.com/books/self-i
De Abaitua, Matthew (2019) Self & I: A memoir of literary ambition. Eye Books, UK. ISBN 9781785630798. Official URL: http://eye-books.com/books/self-i
Abstract
A unique, remarkable and hilarious portrait of one our most talked-about and controversial literary figures. 1994. Matthew De Abaitua, fresh out of university, is being interviewed for a job. The interview involves discussing literature, honking on a special cigarette and shooting at empty whisky bottles with an air rifle. The job in question is that of amanuensis, or live-in personal assistant. The employer is Will Self, the enfant terrible of the literary scene. For the next six months, De Abaitua and Self share a remote cottage in Suffolk, working on their literary ambitions. They are distracted by hikes to Sizewell nuclear power station, opium tea and the allure of Soho. Thanks to Self and his library of bad influences, from JG Ballard to William Burroughs, De Abaitua undergoes a rite of passage that changes him forever. Caught up in vital threads of the early Nineties, from the rise of New Labour to the slow decline of the literary establishment and the emergence of the internet, Self & I is set in a time that burns brightest in its final hour. It is a frank and very funny account of a young, hopeful writer who finds himself alongside one of his heroes only to discover that literary ambition comes at a price.
Item Type: | Book |
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Uncontrolled Keywords: | memoir; creative non-fiction; Will Self |
Subjects: | P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) |
Divisions: | Faculty of Arts and Humanities Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Literature, Film, and Theatre Studies, Department of |
SWORD Depositor: | Unnamed user with email elements@essex.ac.uk |
Depositing User: | Unnamed user with email elements@essex.ac.uk |
Date Deposited: | 19 Dec 2017 13:01 |
Last Modified: | 16 May 2024 19:09 |
URI: | http://repository.essex.ac.uk/id/eprint/20809 |