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Milk, Sulphate and Alby Starvation
 
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Milk, Sulphate and Alby Starvation (Paperback)

by Martin Millar (Author)
4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Paperback: 160 pages
  • Publisher: Independent Music Press; New edition edition (29 Aug 2000)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 095332754X
  • ISBN-13: 978-0953327546
  • Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 599,621 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

    #17 in  Books > Fiction > Cult Authors > Millar, Martin

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Product Description

Product Description

A re-issue of Martin Millar's classic novel which recounts the life of Alby Starvation, the first true British anti-hero of the giro generation. A strange and wonderful story of Brixton low-life, seedy gutter violence and manic paranoia that's as relevant now as when first published in the 1980s.


From the Publisher

About This Book
"What’s allergic to milk, collects comics, sells speed, likes The Fall and lives in Brixton? Alby Starvation, the first true British anti-hero of the giro generation. A strange and wonderful story, I’ve yet to meet someone who has not enjoyed it." NME

Your doctor refuses to believe you’re allergic to just about everything, especially milk, there’s a megalomaniac professor digging a hole outside your flat, your small stake in the amphetamine market in Brixton is being threatened by a mysterious Chinese man and the Milk Marketing Board have taken out a contract on your life.

Welcome to the bizarre, obsessive world of Alby Starvation.

A world full of shop-lifting, death-threats, paranoia and video game arcades. Alby’s frantic struggle to avoid being shot provides the hilarious and engaging back-drop for this, Martin Millar’s debut novel, now proudly back in print on I.M.P. Fiction.

What The Press Say

The Times - "Millar’s first novel receives a welcome re-issue. The story of how Alby, the Brixton speed-dealer and all-round low-life, attempts to evade characters who are set on rubbing him out evokes amphetamine-induced paranoia without ever approaching a cliché. These days the drugs have changed, but this entertaining fable, which is alternately surreal and grubbily realistic, still delights."

The Guardian - "Pop cultural references are everywhere in this frantic cultish debut which takes an Irvine Welsh-esque turn."

The List -

"Written in 1987, this welcome re-issue is a masterful work that goes straight to the heart of a spurned generation, alive and not so well, in Thatcher’s revolting (in both meanings of the word) Britain. Much of this novel is pontification brought alive by a particularly visceral strain of urban angst and, as such, pre-dates James Kelman’s How Late It Was, How Late. Alby Starvation is a wonderful creation, a character solidified from the blood that ran down the streets of Brixton during the riots. A work of rare genius and truly cult, it deserves a place on your book shelf next to Hubert Selby Jr’s Last Exit To Brooklyn."

What’s On London - "Martin Millar created a minor classic with his exciting, surreal and funny debut novel It is strange, quirky and entertaining to the end."

The Face - "A crazed comedy of Brixton lowlife, drugs and martial arts."

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Customer Reviews

3 Reviews
5 star:
 (2)
4 star:    (0)
3 star:
 (1)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.3 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Superbly dark comedy and wry social comment, 26 Sep 2001
By A Customer
A wonderfully chaotic account of a man's paranoia that the milk marketing board are out to get him.... This is a truly likable character with a very funny story to tell. The 'plot' is not really a plot but a day-to-day account of the misery he endures. The apparent 'randomness' of the plot is part of the lasting appeal of this book. I could not put this book down. It made me laugh out loud, which is unusual for me with any book. The sarcasm and bitterness are incredibly entertaining! Genuinely funny. My advice, read it now!
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Funny but lacking in plot, 19 Jun 2001
By A Customer
Martin Millar's first novel deals with Alby Starvation, a small-time speed dealer with an allergy to milk. To say more would be to reveal too much of the admittedly fragile narrative threads that Millar sets up in the books short length.

Millar's genius at bizarre setups and humourous dialogue is evident all through the novel, but there's not really much plot to speak of, meaning that the ending comes across rather unsatisfactory. And the music and cultural details from the time of the books release feel a little dated today.

Milk, Sulphate, and Alby Starvation moves along quickly in its brief length, making it an enjoyabkle read, but Millar doesn't really say a lot in the end, and the book doesn't make much of a lasting impression as a result.

Fans of Millar will find plenty to enjoy here but those who haven't come across him before might be better starting with a later work like Dreams of Sex and Stage Diving or Lux The Poet.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Well worth a read, 26 Oct 2008
By A. Blackwell "Beedlebrox" (Grantham, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
It was a friend who first introduced me to Martin Millar and I owe her a big thanks. "The good fairies of New York" is still my favourite Millar book, but this is a very close second.

Anyone who went to Uni has met at least one Alby. In my case he called himself the "Astral Warrior" and he spent most of his academic career wandered around campus wearing a set of old curtains and clutching a can of super strength lager.

Millar has turned Alby into a superb character, the perennial no-hoper, who decides one day that his ill health and fuzzy mental state has nothing to do with the hard drugs he takes and everything to do with the milk he drinks. He stops drinking milk, tells everyone about it and, by these seemingly innocent moves, is sent hurtling into a world of violence and paranoia as the faceless bureaucrats from the Milk Marketing board, wreak their revenge.

If this sounds nutty and totally off the wall, welcome to the world of Martin Millar. He has this brilliant ability to combine the common-place with the fantastic and to make the mix hysterical.

However, be warned! Do not read this book on your way to work on the London Underground! You will burst out laughing, there will be tears, there will be severe looks and you will be embarrassed.
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