Milk, Sulphate, and Alby Starvation - Softcover

Millar, Martin

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1593762275 ISBN 13: 9781593762278

Publisher: Catapult, 2009

Synopsis

There’s a megalomaniac professor digging a hole outside his flat. His small stake in the amphetamine market in Brixton is being threatened by a mysterious Chinese man. And the Milk Marketing Board has taken out a contract on his life. Welcome to the bizarre, obsessive world of Alby Starvation.
Alby’s doctor refuses to believe he’s allergic to just about everything (which he is), especially milk. But when Alby soon discovers that his ongoing ailments are directly linked to the consumption of said product, he gives it up and is cured. Only thing is, he goes on to suggest this remedy to a number of other people suffering from milk allergies. In Millar’s surreal backyard, the Milk Marketing Board sees sales slump to an alltime low. So there’s only one thing left to do: put out a contract on Alby Starvation. Now Alby must save both his life and his precious comic collection.
In Martin Millar’s surreal tale of the urban counterculture a world full of shoplifting, deaththreats, paranoia, and video game arcades Alby’s frantic struggle to avoid being shot falls somewhere between Irvine Welsh and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.

About this title

From Publishers Weekly

A neurotic British hypochondriac is at the center of Millar's frenetic, eccentric novel, first published in the U.K. in 1987. [R]agged paranoid Alby Starvation barely makes ends meet in his career dealing speed in Brixton, and he's constantly suffering from intense stomach pain. When he determines the cause of his internal discomfort is a severe allergy to milk, he creates a media firestorm about how milk could be potentially poisonous. Dairy sales plummet and the Milk Marketing Board takes out a contract on Alby's head. Enter lonesome hit woman June, who apparently isn't the only person gunning for Alby: a cryptic Chinese man with a hidden agenda has it in for Alby, too. Calamity ensues as Alby becomes intimate with June and begins to fear he may have contracted AIDS. The dizzying array of characters and perspectives whips Millar's madcap story into a potent blitz that runs at full throttle through the satisfying conclusion. Fans of Irvine Welsh will love Millar's singularly entertaining tale of suspicious minds. (Feb.)
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Review

"I've been a fan of his work for almost twenty years." -- Neil Gaiman

"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."

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

About this edition

• Publisher: Catapult
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 1593762275
• ISBN 13: 9781593762278
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 169