A new novella and four new short stories from Will Self (his first since 1999's Tough, Tough Toys for Tough, Tough Boys), which see him return to the disturbing and ruckled terrain of his bestselling first collection. Dr Mukti and Other Tales of Woe is another warped window on the wibbly-wobbly world of fear and fun that Self - like some malevolent deity - has fashioned over the years.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
Self returns with another collection of short fiction and, by now, we should know what to expect. Those who have read The Quantity Theory of Insanity will also be eased into this collection by the knowledge that its unsettling psychiatrist Zack Busner also features in the principle story in Dr Mukti. Busner again plays the supreme anti-hero in a story with much competition for that role. We witness Dr Mukti's decline from diligent psychiatrist to potential patient as Self cruelly twists and stretches what could be a pedestrian tale of mid-life crisis. Mukti, spurred on by professional jealousy, and his friend Elmley, clumsily confronting his own demons, soon find their lives and their future mental health in the hands of Busner.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
About the Author
Will Self is the author of three other collections of short stories, three novellas, four novels (most recently Dorian) and four non-fiction works. As a journalist he has contributed to a plethora of publications over the years. He has a regular column in the Evening Standard and is also a frequent broadcaster on television and radio. Will lives in London with his wife and four children. ------------------ 'Brilliantly original, Will Self is one of those rare writers whose imaginations change for ever the way we see the world' JG Ballard ------------------------- 'Examining Mr Self's case notes, I recommend we up the dosage' Herald
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Weird Self,
By Sirin (London, UK) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Dr Mukti and Other Tales of Woe (Paperback)
Will Self is sui generis, there is no one like him. He has plied his weird, surrealist trade in fiction and journalism for a while now, but I think this book tops his others in the bizarre stakes. Personally, I didn't think it was as good as his three previous short story collections: The Quantity Theory of Insanity, Grey Area and Tough Tough Toys For Tough Tough Boys.
About half the book is taken up with the title story which pits Hindu against Jew, junior against senior psychiatrist who send each other deranged patients under the auspices of requesting a second opinion. Mukti, jealous and angry at the ludicrous, arrogant tele-psychiatrist Busner, becomes convinced that he is being controlled by a cabal of psychiatrists, led by Busner, determined to undermine him. All sinews of sanity are unravelled by the end of the story. After that there is a mixed bag of short stories. 161 is written in the shadow of Ballard, the grey area of a tower block in Liverpool. A pensioner befriends a youth, threatened by gang men, and despite seeming to be a vulnerable incontinent old man, he keeps his real intentions close to his chest. The story, as revealed in the acknowledgements, was commissioned as part of a Liverpool Housing project. Self actually wrote the piece from a Liverpool tower that was about to be demolished which reveals an interesting desire on behalf of the author to fuse his work with the real world in interesting and original ways. The Five-Swing Walk, set amongst the scrubby park areas of South London is a bleak, dark meditation on fatherhood. A weekend visiting rights father takes his son to the swings, and becomes disturbed by the nightmarish responsibilities of his role. This is the darkest piece of the lot. Cheer yourself up somewhat with Conversations with Ord about two lonely middle aged men who conduct a friendship based on visceral hatred and imaginative conceits - mental games of Go-Chess, and pretending to be Ord, a general in his 80s. They discuss the notion of going up in a hot air balloon, stationed over Vauxhall Bridge. The final piece, Return to the Planet of the Humans, is little more than a coda to Self's earlier novel, Great Apes.
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