The Butt

by Will Self

Overview

When Tom Brodzinksi tries to give up smoking, he inadvertently sets off a chain of events that threaten to upset the tenuous balance of peace in a not-too-distant land. When he flips the butt of his final cigarette off the balcony of his vacation apart-ment, it lands on elderly Reggie Lincoln, lounging on the balcony below. Lincoln suf-fers a burn, and the local authorities charge Tom with assault―in a country with draconian anti-smoking laws, a cigarette is a weapon of offense. For reparation, Tom must leave his family behind and wander through the arid center of the country’s deserted territory. Joining Tom on his journey is Brian Prentice, a mysteriously sin-ister presence, who has his own sins to make up for. Inevitably, the two men en-counter violence, forcing them to come together despite their seething mistrust. Refusing facile moral certitudes, The Butt is set in a distorted world, a country that is part Australia, part Iraq, and part the heart of a distinctively modern darkness.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780802129284
Publisher:	Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
Publication date:	10/15/2019
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	368
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

Will Self is the author of many novels and books of nonfiction, including Great Apes; How the Dead Live, which was shortlisted for the Whitbread Novel of the Year; The Book of Dave; Liver; Umbrella, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize; Shark; and Phone. He lives in South London.

Editorial Reviews

From Self, the British master of the satirical fantasy, comes a loquacious and inventive farce about the demise of civilization. Tom Brodzinski, relaxing on vacation in the postcolonial Feltham Islands, sets off a string of unfortunate events when he flicks a cigarette butt off his hotel balcony. It lands on the scalp of tourist Reginald Lincoln III. Reggie's happy to laugh it off, but things slide from bad to worse when Reggie is hospitalized and Tom is charged with assault with "a projectile weapon with a toxic payload." After a chaotic trial, Tom is ordered to pay a restitution of two good hunting "riffles," a set "coking pots" and $10,000. The catch is that the restitution needs to take place in the tribal heartland. This launches Tom and Brian Prentice, another foreign transgressor (Tom suspects pedophilia), on an expedition of Conradian proportions during which Tom is tormented by Brian's "rotten, cloacal physicality." Self (The Book of Dave; How the Dead Live; etc.) confirms his reputation for pulling off cleverly modeled literary experiments. This one is at times exhausting, but if you can stick with him, Self successfully presents an ironic and timely metaphor for our post-9/11 Bigger Brother world. (Sept.)

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Publishers Weekly

“Horribly compelling…The Butt is a hideously engaged, overwritten, barking masterpiece.” —Independent

“An accomplished satirist…Polysyllabically perverse.” —New York Times Book Review

“Though Self's landscape is his own invention, Brodzinski's odyssey parallels the Coalition of the Willing's misadventures in Iraq and bears a strong resemblance to Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness…[The] shocking conclusion amounts to a scathing indictment.” —Los Angeles Times

“An allegorical satire…Brilliantly chilling, damning.” —Observer (UK )

“The British master of the satirical fantasy…Self successfully presents an ironic and timely metaphor for our post-9/11 Bigger Brother world.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

From the Publisher