Will Self

Ian Wharton is a rather sad, lonely boy, growing up in a small town in Sussex, dominated by his over-sexual mother. He becomes the familiar of Samuel Northcliffe, a ridiculously obese caravan dweller and neighbour who intimidates and enchants Ian into a Faustian pact.

A Cautionary Tale

My Idea of Fun

edith w.

The story of a devilishly clever international financier/marketing wizard and his young apprentice, My Idea of Fun is both a frighteningly dark subterranean exploration of capitalism run rampant and a wickedly sharp, technically acute display of linguistic pyrotechnics that glows with pure white-hot brilliance. Ian Wharton is a very ordinary young man until he is taken under the wing of a gentleman known variously as Mr. Broadhurst, Samuel Northcliff, and finally and conclusively simply as the Fat Controller, Loud-mouthed, impeccably tailored, a fount of bombastic erudition, the Fat Controller initiates Ian into the dark secrets of his arts -- of marketing, money, and the human psyche -- and takes Ian, and the reader, on a wild voyage around the edges of reality.

Eduardo Z 

An international financier and his young apprentice form the center of a wickedly acute story of capitalism run amuck, in a society in which consumerism, violence, and psychosis are the norm and the human soul becomes the ultimate product. 25,000 first printing.

My Idea of Fun A Cautionary Tale

Reviews