Politics - Softcover

Thirlwell, Adam

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0099459027 ISBN 13: 9780099459026

Publisher: TRAFALGAR SQUARE +, 2004

Synopsis

Politics tells the story of a father and daughter. It also tells the story of a m-nage - trois. Politics explores crucial domestic problems of sexual etiquette. What should sleeping arrangements be in a menage - trois? Is it polite to read while two people have sex beside you? Is it permissible to be jealous? If you have eczema, may you complain that undinism can be painful? Politics is a comedy about kindness. And, at the same time, it is also about Milan Kundera, blow jobs, Chairman Mao's personal hygiene, V-clav Havel, half-Jewishness, Bollywood, shopping, Hitler's sexual fetish, selfishness, Osip Mandelstam, premature ejaculation, the late Queen Mother, thrush, Stalin on the phone, politeness, pink fluffy handcuffs, and Antonio Gramsci's theory of hegemony. Politics is not about politics. --'One of the funniest, most stylish and utterly original debuts in recent years' The Times --'The year's most controversial debut novel-A unique achievement-A naturally gifted writer' Observer--'Thirlwell brings the clarity of an essayist such as Montaigne and the deadpan humour of Buster Keaton. He does the Granta list proud' The Times --'Politics has a flexibility and muscle that elevates [

About this title

About the Author

Adam Thirlwell is the author of two novels, Politics and The Escape; a novella, Kapow!; and a project including an essay-book - which won a Somerset Maugham Award - and a compendium of translations edited for McSweeney's. His work is translated into thirty languages. He has twice been selected as one of Granta's Best of Young British Novelists.

From Publishers Weekly

In this nervy, self-conscious debut novel, British writer Thirlwell airs the unspoken anxieties and confusions of two lovers, crafting a talky deconstruction of a relationship. Moshe is a character actor, "the sketchy one, the sardonic one, the oddball cool"; Nana is an architecture student, "tall, thin, pale, blonde, breasty." It is the off-stage narrator, however, who is the book's most notable presence, with his countless digressions, "simple" theories, lengthy explanations and bossy directives. Despite his repeated assertions that the book is not about sex ("sex isn't everything"; "sometimes I think that this book is an attack on sex"), Moshe and Nana are constantly experimenting ("oral sex, use of alternative personae, lesbianism, undinism"), though their experiments usually end in failure. This is true of their biggest experiment, a three-way affair involving Anjali, an Anglo-Indian actor friend of Moshe's. Reading Thirlwell's novel is similar to watching a film with the director in the room, guiding the viewer through every scene. While many of the resulting narrative flourishes are clever or endearing, their humor and intellectual cachet wear thin as the ratio of window dressing to substance tips heavily in favor of the former. Still, Thirlwell's brave attempt to debunk the primacy of sex (while elaborately describing his characters' hapless pursuit of it) is surprisingly convincing.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: TRAFALGAR SQUARE +
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0099459027
• ISBN 13: 9780099459026
• Binding: Paperback