John Self, the extravagantly wretched man at the heart of this
wonderfully funny book, is no ordinary pig. A slave to his countless
vices, a monster of lustrous indulgence, he's the kind of sleazeball
who puts the id back in idiot. Naturally, he's in the movie business.
To be precise, he's a director of TV commercials who is making his
first feature while perfecting his gift for self-destruction. (And, by
the way, offering what is frequently an astute take on this profane
world of ours.) Self's spectacular lusts, his raw craving for money,
sex and stimulants, his low cunning, his sheer, bewitching awfulness—
somehow it all makes him perfectly irresistible.—R.L.
From the TIME Archive:
The novel's underlying theme: a culture geared to profit from the
immediate gratification of egos and nerve endings is not a culture at
all, but an addiction
—TIME Magazine, Mar. 11, 1985 (Read This Review)
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