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Wednesday, March 31, 2004

Endnotes

‘Writing’: one of modern-life’s better-known exit-strategies... Presumably I don’t need to labour this point. Suffice to say the modern literary loom is driven as much by instincts of bloody-minded office-aversion as by honourable devotion to the Muse. The productivity of such endeavours is dependent here on the usual combination, found in all walks of life, of talent, luck and myopic eccentricity (and not necessarily in that order)

When I began this project in 1998, I was fond of insisting (to my more patient friends) that ‘I didn’t care’ if it took me ‘ten years or more!’ Whether through wish-fulfilment, or semi-accurate prognosis, here I am 6 years later – about to round off the bastard for once and for all. My tenure of slackness is drawing to a close.

In the meantime, there’s the expected pile of proofing and editorial work. If the contract goes ahead with the present publisher (hereafter known as The Second Party), I am to submit a manuscript by the 30th of September this year. The following thread will document the bitter-sweet journey towards the end of the production-life cycle of the work involved, referred to hereafter as The Little Monster…

Posted by Will @ 22:43 GMT
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Boris Vian, L’Écome des Jours, 1947, Translated by Stanley Chapman as 'Froth on the Daydream'1967, 1970, 1988

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Herman Melvills's 'Moby Dick

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Previous Book Club Books

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Senhor Jose is an official in a registry office, with a passion for unearthing every detail and reconstructing people's lives from the bare data in the archive documents. One file in particular challenges him: a woman's date and place of birth are missing, and so he begins his research in earnest.

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Patrick Bateman is Harvard-educated and intelligent. He works by day on Wall Street, earning a fortune to complement the one he was born with. His nights he spends in ways we cannot begin to fathom - doing impermissible things to women. He is living his own American Dream.

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