In a dark comedy structured like a great London department store, Arnold, the last of the Haden Brothers, owners of the world's greatest emporium, receives an explosive proposition from an attractive female employee that may result in drastic storewide reductions.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
Geoff Nicholson is the author of twenty books, including Sex Collectors, Hunters and Gatherers, The Food Chain, and Bleeding London, which was shortlisted for the Whitbread Prize. He divides his time between Los Angeles and London
An off-beat tale with a sardonic edge, Nicholson's brightly lit black comedy takes place in Haden Brothers, a monstrous London department store that is a combination of Harrod's, Kafka's Castle and the Marx Brothers' The Big Store. Arnold Haden, the last surviving Haden brother, has a weakness for nubile shop assistants and, as the novel opens, believes that the brittlely efficient Vita Carlisle, who has been avoiding his attentions, has finally succumbed when she agrees to come to his penthouse apartment (located atop the giant store). But when Arnold finally gets a peek under Vita's skirts, he finds "three sticks of dynamite... and a tangle of electrical wiring that leads to a switch located by her navel." Vita threatens to blow up the store-and she won't, initially, tell Arnold why. So begins a highly literate and bawdy assault on the principle that all things, including people, have exchange values. The book's spirit is epitomized by the third major character, Charlie Mayhew, a lowly furniture porter and failing artist, who not only longs for Vita but also admits, in an early monologue: "So I thought to myself, why not structure a book like a department store?" Arnold, Vita and Charlie proceed to undergo reversals of fortune as though stuck in a revolving door of a plot. Along the way, disquisitions on makeup application, kleptomania and bomb-threat etiquette stock an episodic narrative that makes stops in chapters named after store sections and saddled with double entendres: Yarns, Bedding, First Aid; Toiletries, Accessories, Exhibitions. As, individually, the three main characters discover the great dark secrets of the department store (and they are over-the-top dark), Nicholson (Hunters and Gatherers) maintains enough verbal resourcefulness to rescue his story from its occasional predictability, delivering an exhaustively entertaining farce and one of the better satires of Thatcherite consumerism.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
Shipping:
FREE
Within U.S.A.
Seller: Better World Books, Mishawaka, IN, U.S.A.
Condition: Very Good. Used book that is in excellent condition. May show signs of wear or have minor defects. Seller Inventory # 38967143-6
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: ThriftBooks-Atlanta, AUSTELL, GA, U.S.A.
Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. No Jacket. May have limited writing in cover pages. Pages are unmarked. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less 0.95. Seller Inventory # G0312130694I4N00
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: Willis Monie-Books, ABAA, Cooperstown, NY, U.S.A.
Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good. 1st US Printing. Review material laid in. Seller Inventory # 163657
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: Monroe Street Books, Middlebury, VT, U.S.A.
Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good. 249 pages. Light shelf-wear to dust jacket, else a clean, tight copy. Record # 461393. Seller Inventory # 461393
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: Glands of Destiny First Edition Books, Sedro Woolley, WA, U.S.A.
Hardcover. Condition: Like New. First Edition, First Printing. FINE hardcover book in FINE dust-jacket. As New. Unread. NOT marked. NOT price-clipped. NOT remaindered. NOT faded. NOT a b/c. NOT an XL. PRISTINE. All of our dust-jackets are shipped in fresh, archival-safe mylar protective book jacket covers. Seller Inventory # SKU1000867
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: Glands of Destiny First Edition Books, Sedro Woolley, WA, U.S.A.
Hardcover. Condition: Like New. Publisher: St. Martin's Press, NY., 1995. First Edition, First Printing. FINE hardcover book in FINE dust-jacket. Not remainder marked. Not price-clipped. Not a book club edition. Not an ex-library copy. All of our books with dust-jackets are shipped in fresh, archival-safe mylar protective sleeves. Seller Inventory # SKU1020933
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: Ziebarth Books, Coal Valley, IL, U.S.A.
Hardcover. Condition: Near Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Fine. First U.S. Edition. first U. S, edition, first printing, hardcover. Quarter-bound in black cloth with silver titles on spine/white paper-covered boards. Near fine with light soil to rear board, in a fine, mylar-covered dust jacket. "An explosively funny novel about life in a great department store.". Seller Inventory # 138433
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: Between the Covers-Rare Books, Inc. ABAA, Gloucester City, NJ, U.S.A.
Hardcover. Condition: Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Fine. First American edition. Fine in fine dustwrapper. A very nice copy, like new. Please Note: This book has been transferred to Between the Covers from another database and might not be described to our usual standards. Please inquire for more detailed condition information. Seller Inventory # 198656
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: Good Books In The Woods, Spring, TX, U.S.A.
Hardcover. Condition: Near Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Fine. First American Edition; First Printing. A darkly humorous novel about shopping and terrorism that was written in the coffee bar of Selfridge's department store in London. Front board very slightly bowed. Text is clean and Bright, no previous owner marks. Dust Jacket is bright with no fading and only minimal wear. Dust Jacket protected in Mylar. Ships same or next business day. ; 8vo 8" - 9" tall; 251 pages. Seller Inventory # 74795
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: Garys Books, Apache Junction, AZ, U.S.A.
Hardcover. Condition: Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Fine. 1st Edition. Signed by Author(s) 0312130694 First Print. Signed by the author on the title page. NOT inscribed, clipped or otherwise marked. Dust jacket in protective cover and shipped in a box. Complete # line 10987654321. Signed by Author(s). Seller Inventory # ABE-12620771073
Quantity: 1 available