Feeding Frenzy
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Product Description
Product Description
FEEDING FRENZY, Will Self's third collection of journalism and selected writings takes us through the turbulent years 1995-2000. During this period Self surfed the great wave of olive oil which nearly swept British metropolitan culture away, and produced a series of restaurant reviews for The Observer, whose coruscating criticality led to a cabal of restaurateurs plotting his contract killing. In essays to accompany the work of admired artists such as Marc Quinn, feature articles on rock music and remote places, reviews of cultural phenomena as diverse as voyeuristic television and the Queen Mother, Self has produced what can only be described as a cachinnating cacophony of wilful provocation.
About the Author
'A clean, mean, writing machine' (Esquire), Will Self's books include the acclaimed short story collections THE QUANTITY THEORY OF INSANITY, GREY AREA, and TOUGH TOUGH TOYS FOR TOUGH TOUGH BOYS and three novels MY IDEA OF FUN, GREAT APES and HOW THEDEAD LIVE. There have been two previous collections of journalism JUNK MAIL and SORE SITES.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
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.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Ms Burrell (below) is absolutely correct: this is not a book one can skim through in a couple of days, it requires slow digestion (hence, presumably, the title). There is nothing to link the piece together, no chronology and no sense of narrative nor progress. But I guarantee you'll want to keep reading.
Just go out and get a copy, you won't regret it.
Format:Paperback
If you want to know what life in nineties britain was actually like, you need to buy this book.
It collects Self's articles from his various endeavours, including restaurant reviews(including McDonald's), Political and philosophical musings, surreal accounts of sojourns to the Orkneys and many articles on books, art exhibtions, architecture and cinema. It builds up a very dark and idiosyncratic take on nineties Britain that rings especially true in hindsight.
As this was my first foray into the world of Self, I was bowled over by his vocabulary and his ability to create unusual nightmarish visons in the mind of the reader, but any sense of intimidation is tempered and dulled by the frequent hilarity in his analyses and evocations, including an inverse ratio of pulchritude in diners and waiters, where if the waiters and diners are both similar in attractiveness, the food is bound to be awful. You will find numerous departures from reality in even the most functional review; from flies in tweed suits to the 'inundations of glutinous patties' at McDonald's. There are the tangental juxtapositions of high and low culture: the idea of Bertrand Russell force-feeding a Pot Noodle to protege Ludwig Wittgenstein is one notable example.
As expected, cultural references are many, and will be obscure to some, but Self is the last writer who should be expected to appease the casual reader, as a lot of his appeal is, or was, his complex prose and status as an enfant terrible of British literary life, not that he'd necessarily agree, as most interviewers find out when they try and categorise him and his work.
Overall, a very witty, concise and unique collection that paints a revealing picture of a chaotic and unsettled cultural scene in the UK. Just make sure you have a very good dictionary to hand.
It collects Self's articles from his various endeavours, including restaurant reviews(including McDonald's), Political and philosophical musings, surreal accounts of sojourns to the Orkneys and many articles on books, art exhibtions, architecture and cinema. It builds up a very dark and idiosyncratic take on nineties Britain that rings especially true in hindsight.
As this was my first foray into the world of Self, I was bowled over by his vocabulary and his ability to create unusual nightmarish visons in the mind of the reader, but any sense of intimidation is tempered and dulled by the frequent hilarity in his analyses and evocations, including an inverse ratio of pulchritude in diners and waiters, where if the waiters and diners are both similar in attractiveness, the food is bound to be awful. You will find numerous departures from reality in even the most functional review; from flies in tweed suits to the 'inundations of glutinous patties' at McDonald's. There are the tangental juxtapositions of high and low culture: the idea of Bertrand Russell force-feeding a Pot Noodle to protege Ludwig Wittgenstein is one notable example.
As expected, cultural references are many, and will be obscure to some, but Self is the last writer who should be expected to appease the casual reader, as a lot of his appeal is, or was, his complex prose and status as an enfant terrible of British literary life, not that he'd necessarily agree, as most interviewers find out when they try and categorise him and his work.
Overall, a very witty, concise and unique collection that paints a revealing picture of a chaotic and unsettled cultural scene in the UK. Just make sure you have a very good dictionary to hand.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Thank you Mr Self.
I cannnot recommend this book highly enough. I normally devour a book within one or two days. This book was a Christmas present and is still being read in March. Read more
Published on 4 Mar 2003 by Sue Burrell
An entertaining, if somewhat eclectic collection.
Feeding Frenzy is an eclectic collection of Will Self's journalism and written thought about things British between 1995 and 2001. Read more
Published on 18 Oct 2002
A work of scintillating genius
Effortlessly blending highbrow and left-wing, Will Self represents the pinnacle of intelligent and entertaining writing. Read more
Published on 8 Jan 2002 by Mr Punchbowl
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