Slow Death (High Risk Books) [Paperback]

Stewart Home (Author)

Book Description

Series: High Risk Books | Publication Date: May 1, 1996

Sexual violence and violent sex plus skinheads attack the art world. A great punk novel.

Editorial Reviews

From Kirkus Reviews

Slow Death ($12.99 paperback original; May 1996; 245 pp.; 1- 85242-519-9). A dreary, noisy novel that recounts with visceral overenthusiasm the adventures of a gang of British skinheads in conflict with a sex-starved woman doctor, a London ``art star,'' and one another, as they explore the vicissitudes of ``Art and Resistance'' in a foulmouthed frontal assault on the avant-garde art scene. Its contempt for bourgeois values produces some agreeable inventions (``Neoism,'' ``the Semiotic Liberation Front,'' and ``the Journal of Immaterial Art'' constitute decent throwaway gags at least), but its blood- and sperm-soaked narrative and its characters' continual entreaties for oral sex are muted, though scarcely redeemed, by what might in another context be called elegant variation (``liquid genetics,'' indeed). This is the kind of book that gives mindless violence and sexual degradation a bad name. -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Product Details

• Paperback: 296 pages
• Publisher: Serpent's Tail; First Edition edition (May 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1852425199
• ISBN-13: 978-1852425197
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,465,674 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Overambitiously interesting, July 23, 1999

By 

A. Ross (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Slow Death (High Risk Books) (Paperback)

Home tries to do a little too much here in attempting to satirize the contemporary London art scene within a what appears to be a parody of pulp fiction. The plot intertwines the trendies of the London art world with a gang of sympathetic, yet thuggish skinheads (the non-racist kind) let by Johnny Aggro. There's lots of silly art doubletalk, some asskicking of foolish people by the skins, and lots of sex. Not erotic or even pulp sex, but rather a parody of pulp sex. Everyone seems to want it--from frustrated social workers, to young schoolgirls, to the fat skinhead--and Home uses the same words to describe each act, sometimes duplicating the entire passage. In any event, Home's touch is far too heavy to pull this whole enterprise off.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars sex and violence for beginners, July 31, 2002

By 

K. Wark "thecommonreader" (NYC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Slow Death (High Risk Books) (Paperback)

Hilarious mix of art world satire and plagiarism of antique English porn and street punk fiction. Home realises that the leading characteristic of pulp fiction is repetition, and he just perfects the method, with highly amusing results. The book is populated with fictional versions of some of Home's own 'real-world' avant garde provocations, although with Home one is never sure what is original and what is a copy; what is 'real' and what is fiction.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Strange Book., April 16, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Slow Death (High Risk Books) (Paperback)

Revolting prose, rediculous subject matter, annoying as hell--THE BEST BOOK I HAVE READ IN YEARS! Or the worst.