Dorian: An Imitation (Hardcover)

"Dorian - an Imitation" is so much more than simply the retelling of one of our most famous and terrifying modern fables.

Self has not only retold Oscar Wilde's 'Picture of Dorian Gray', and done this with great panache, dexterity and originality, but has taken it some way further as well. While many will (think) they know what to expect from the plot, there are plenty of new ports of call to keep the most jaded reader wide awake.

Self has transposed the characters of the original to the London of the 1980s and 1990s. And in so doing, Self gives glorious attention to detail: Dorian Gray's progress from callow youth to shallow monster, his 'mentor' Henry Wotton, the cynical yet perspicacious, bisexual drug-fiend aristo, his somewhat dippy but devoted wife 'Batface', the wrinkled old queen 'The Ferret' (like a human embodiment of the Dormouse from Alice in Wonderland) who keeps falling asleep and to whom they keep feeding drugs... and a convincing cast of many other lowlifes and highbrows.

Impressive, too, is the detail (psychological and social) of (a sector of) the homosexual world of the period, the disease and subculture of AIDS and (of course, Mr Self) drug taking. I write as a not totally unworldly gay man with HIV and feel that Self has achieved an, at times, uncomfortable and poignant accuracy.

At the novel's climax, as ever, Self has more cards up his sleeve than we realise. We're kept on the edge of our seats to the end - our brains reeling on the roller coaster of (!self-) revelation right to last full stop.

I found this book shocking, loathsome, chilling, gruesome and (consequently) totally compelling. Even at its most grotesque (or perhaps, perversely, because of it) it has credibility - the hallmarks of truth. Enough to make you feel exposed as though your own picture were on view because it is so very vivid.

Indeed the book has a very visual, filmic quality about its writing - almost as if it were the screenplay for a movie. Perhaps, (like the video art installation of Dorian Gray itself) the book partly reflects the way that art and entertainment now centres its focus and importance on the medium of the moving image.

Be that as it may, like all good fiction/art, it holds up a mirror to the truth about any of us, so how can we help but leer back at it and make comparisons? For it is "the spectator and not life that art really mirrors" as Oscar Wilde states in his preface to "The Picture of Dorian Gray".

Indeed, let's give Wilde the last word seeing as that's where this story began. "The artist is the creator of beautiful things" he says at the start. Self has certainly done that in this version - even if the subject matter might make that seem otherwise.

Buy it. Read it. And shiver!

In particular his characters are spectacularly enjoyable, and in particular I had a happy bonding to Henry Wotton, despite or perhaps because of his moral tendency to sit on the fence without getting splinters up his arse, whilst he cheerfully zones out of the world with yet more opiates. In contrast to a cosy bedding down with Henry, I watched in open-mouthed-horrified fascination at Dorian's emotionless foray into that unfashionable zone of evil.

This book was another example of why I shouldn't buy work that I suspect I'll love. Bought on Saturday. Finished by Sunday. A complete waste of £7.99 in terms of longevity of reading. Ignored food, work, sex and play. Would Will call Dorian's bluff? Would Ginger wreak his revenge, Ah yes, Oh No!

Dorian achieves loudly which Will Self girlishly wished for in response to Craig from Big Brother's being added to the ranks of a heartthrob for the gay world, - it will confirm his status as a gay icon. And he doesn't do so badly with the girls, stop with that tongue in cheek picture you put on all publishing back covers - We KNOW what you're insinuating.

If you haven't read any Will Self before, this will be a romping little jaunt through bloodletting, amoral sexuality, beautiful boys, raddled aristocratic harridans, a jiggling man, drug taking and the superlative fencing and parading of the English language. Get addicted. It’s the only way forward.