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Liver: A Fictional Organ with a Surface Anatomy of Four Lobes Hardcover – 4 Sept. 2008

by Will Self (Author)

3.9 20 ratings

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These remarkable new pieces from Will Self each feature the largest of our internal organs: the liver, in varying states of disease and decay. In 'Foie Humane' we go inside a Soho drinking club, the denizens of which live in a highly stylised yet emotionally dead state of excess. 'Prometheus' tells the story of a dazzlingly successful advertising copywriter who can sell anything to anyone at any time. But things go wrong when he meets Zeus, a bigshot entrepreneur with a beautiful and manipulative wife. Tony Phillips's subterranean Kensington flat is the setting for 'Birdy Num Num,' where obsessives spend their days in a crepuscular realm of cocaine and heroin. Finally, in 'Leberknodel', a terminal liver cancer patient travels to Zurich to commit assisted suicide. When she arrives, however, the cancer mysteriously goes into remission.

Print length

288 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Viking
Publication date

4 Sept. 2008
Dimensions

16.1 x 2.9 x 22.4 cm
ISBN-10

0670889970
ISBN-13

978-0670889976
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Review

Praise for The Book of Dave:

'Self is...a master of demotic speech and -- rare breed this side of the Channel -- a novelist of ideas' Sunday Telegraph

'Epic and bitterly funny, this new stew of satire and linguistic wizardry is everything you'd expect from Britain's master of misanthropy' Arena

'Self has upped his ante from Monty Python to Jonathan Swift, and gone straight to brilliant hell' Harper's

Review

Classic Self...This is what Self does best: snap-shots of decline and high-concept satires of the 'slapstick of addiction'.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Viking; First Edition, First Impression (4 Sept. 2008)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 288 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0670889970
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0670889976
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 16.1 x 2.9 x 22.4 cm

Best Sellers Rank: 2,370,289 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 68,797 in Short Stories (Books)
- 160,822 in Contemporary Fiction (Books)
- 167,521 in Literary Fiction (Books)

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3.9 20 ratings

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GREATLYAMUSED

Crack out a dictionary and settle down.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 7 December 2018

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Infuriatingly smart and wryly funny, Will Self doesn't care if you like him or his work. He's writing to write. Excellent as ever, but dear lord how you have to concentrate.

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Paul M

Some of Will Self's stuff is pretty impenetrable but I really enjoyed this collection of short ...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 15 September 2017

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Some of Will Self's stuff is pretty impenetrable but I really enjoyed this collection of short stories. The first story alone is worth of the price of the book.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 30 November 2011

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I normally love Will Self but I actually couldn't finish this. The characters just aren't likeable and the short stories are quite long for Self so there's less variety and if you don't enjoy them you're stuck with them for a while. Less balanced than most of his work- more miserable than funny.

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Chris Payne

..

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 3 January 2014

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I bought this item as a gift. I ordered a book and received a book so I'm content. Thank you

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The Pamphleteer

A Surface Anatomy Of Two Lobes

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 5 January 2009

A strange one. This collection of short stories, thematically unified by livers in various stages of failure, bears the familiar hallmarks that make Will Self so worth reading. Each of the stories revolve around a pleasing enough conceit. And the first two stories here are truly brilliant. Witty and poignant, they crackle with grotesques and pugnacious prose.

But the final two, shorter, stories feel like after-thoughts. Although Self imbues each with its own voice and its own stylistic modes, neither really transcends the kind of throw-away idea that might be found in one of his columns or as a sub-plot to a thicker narrative. The very disparity between the length and depth of the better-crafted first half and these pieces only reinforces the experience of them as page fillers. As hard as this may be in practice, I would advise anybody buying this book to skip the second half. I say that only because you really should buy this on the strength of the opening tales, not to mention the physical beauty of the thing.

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The Gadger

Typical Will Self (& that's a good thing).

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 3 November 2011

I'm surprised that only 2 people have already reviewed this book & that it has such a low rating - frankly it deserves more. All the usual hallmarks of a Will Self book are here - grotesque characters, bizarre wordplay & a steaming dollop of satire. If you've enjoyed other Will Self books, you will probably enjoy this one; if you hated other Will Self books, you'll probably hate this one too. & if you've never read a Will Self book, I suggest you give this one a go. I'd say it's represenative of his output (his books are all excellent if you like that kind of thing).

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Mingo Bingo

Imagination unbounded

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 24 January 2010

I've never been a huge fan of short stories, certainly not collections of them. Will Self is, however, an exception to this. The complexity of his prose and his verbal gymnastics have always been easier to consume in smaller chunks, often feeling oppressive over the length of a novel.

"Liver", subtitled 'a fictional organ with a surface anatomy of four lobes' comprises 4 short stories, loosely held together by the idea of the organ and what it means to us as humans. Of course, this being Will Self, this has a lot to do with spiralling addiction, the abasement of the soul and the dirty underbelly of London.

The first story, "Foie Humain", concerns itself with the revolting, alcoholic inhabitants of the Plantation Club, a private members club in Soho of the eighties. They bicker, abuse each other, abuse new comers and gradually drink themselves to death. This is what Will Self does best- the characters are as close to parody as you can get without becoming farce, but they are a gleefully drawn bunch of grotesques. The story is worth reading for their names alone, 'Her Ladyship', 'The Extra', 'His Nibs' and 'The Martian' and it is laugh out loud funny in parts.

The second, "Leberknodel", is a surprisingly sensitive and thoughtful piece about a terminally ill cancer patient on her way to Switzerland to commit assisted suicide. I had the pleasure of hearing Will Self read an extract from this at a literary festival, so when reading it I could hear every word in his rich and distinctive voice.

The third is a straight retelling of the "Prometheus" myth set in the world of advertising, which is effective, if a little obvious.

The final story, "Birdy Num Num" is about a party of drug users as seen by the HIV virus that passes between them in dirty syringes.

When you pick up a Will Self book you know exactly what you are getting and "Liver" is no exception. There is more imagination and beautiful writing in these short stories than there are in most authors entire catalogue.

And this is where the collection fails as well as succeeds. "Foie Humain" is spoiled by a twist which reveals that the whole story to be nothing more than a clever pun and "Birdy Num Num" is muddled by the multiple layers of reality that Self plays with. It's all very clever, but it doesn't always work as a story. The way in which the Plantation Club weaves through the stories seems, in parts, little more than a trick to link them together, where they could easily have been stand alone.

That said, there are very few novelists who can write as well as Will Self and when it is good, like in "Leberknodel", then this book is stunning. Challenging and full of experimentation, but never less than fun to read.

12 people found this helpful

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