Accomplice 01 Only An Alligator (Accomplice 1) [Hardcover]

Steve Aylett (Author)

Book Description

Series: Accomplice 1 | Publication Date: January 17, 2002

Undermined by creep channels, home to soul-eating demons bored by their bland diet, the last resting place of the frayed and venerable Moral Fibre, Accomplice is a city like no other. Only Steve Aylett's extraordinary imagination could have created it, only his prose could have brought it to such frankly bizarre life. Accomplice is where William Burroughs would have dragged Alice to once he'd kidnapped her from Wonderland. It is thought provoking and satiric, always odd in ways that only real life can match. In the foreground is the feud between Sweeney, a demon, and Barny, a preoccupied innocent who has inadvertently become Sweeney's nemesis. Barny's immediate circle of friends and co-workers live lives of constantly grotesque scrapes on the bizarre streets of Accomplice. Other characters include Plantin Edge, Beltane Carom, Dietrich Hmmerwire, Golden Sid, Rakeman and doomed Eddie Gallo. More mystical are Accomplice's resident superheroes; the Rip and Dungboy.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Accomplice is the Wonderland of a sick Alice—a bizarre, self–contained city threaded by creep channels, where the surreal and the nightmarish are everyday—a realm of casual, accepted insanity. Accomplice: the literary equivalent of digging a hole, doing a headstand in it, and claiming you’re wearing the world as a hat… --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Steve Aylett delivers readings like stand-up comedy routines. Lauded by Paul de Fillipo, Michael Moorcock, The Evening Standard, iD magazine and The Guardian, he is at the forefront of a new 'new wave' of British writing.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 144 pages
• Publisher: Orion Publishing (January 17, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0575069066
• ISBN-13: 978-0575069060
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.2 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,783,049 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Don't unravel them- your ears were meant to be that way., October 29, 2008

By 

ClownSon (Fairfax, VA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Only an Alligator (Accomplice) (Paperback)

I just finished this last night so I'm still a little dizzy. Only An Alligator is similar to Aylett's Beerlight books and other works in the same way a safety pin is similar to a cannonball. Both are quite capable of puncturing the skin given the proper circumstances.

You will find the same odd linguistic gymnastic constructions, bizarre characters, unlikely and impossible plots, sub-plots, and sub-sub-plots. Aylett has full command of some of the strangest metaphors, similes, and general descriptors you will find anywhere in modern literature. (Is this literature? It is too artsy for pop culture so it must be so!) But Accomplice, the city/dimensional setting of Only An Alligator and presumably the other Accomplice books, is by far more surreal than even the strangest dark etheric alley corner of Beerlight. Floor lobsters, demons, wild cheetah pets, the pig servant/round one, a book about dogs, 800 eels, a political battle, and a savage kick in the family jewels are just a few of the threads woven into this odd little book.

If you are a fan of Aylett's other work, you will probably enjoy this as well. If you are new to Aylett, and are looking into dabbling into the weird proto-meta-fiction he creates, you should probably start with one of his more accessible works (i.e. Atom or The Crime Studio). Once you are familiar with Aylett's unconventional style, I'd invite you come back and swim in the deep end with Accomplice; but if you dive into this one unprepared you will probably drown before the end of the second chapter.