Psycho Too

by Will Self

Will Self and Ralph Steadman join forces once again in a further post-millennial meditation on the vexed relationship of psyche and place in a globalised world; Psycho Too brings together a second helping of their very best words and pictures from 'Psychogeography', the columns they contributed to the Independent for half a decade. The introduction, 'Journey Through Britain' is a new extended essay by Self, accompanied by Steadman's inimitable images. It tells of how Self journeyed to Dubai, that Gotterdammerung of the contemporary built environment, in order to walk the length of the artificial Britain-shaped island, in the offshore luxury housing development known as 'The World'. Ranging from Istanbul to Los Angeles and from the crumbling coastline of East Yorkshire to the adamantine heads of Easter Island, Will Self's engaging and disturbing vision is once again perfectly counter-pointed by Ralph Steadman's edgy and dazzling artwork.

Genres: Nonfiction, Travel, British Literature, 21st Century

255 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

William Self is an English novelist, reviewer and columnist. He received his education at University College School, Christ's College Finchley, and Exeter College, Oxford. He was married to the late journalist Deborah Orr.

Self is known for his satirical, grotesque and fantastic novels and short stories set in seemingly parallel universes.

Reviews

[MJ Nicholls · Rating 4 out of 5]

A second selection from Self + Steadman's successful psychogeography column. The opening essay is a touching narrative about Self's attempt to navigate a perfect Ballardian topography. He sets out from the writer's Shepperton home during the last days of his illness to the corrupt sheikhdom of Dubai. The first half is a fitting tribute to his mentor, the second a scathing assessment of the financial delusion of this Westernised conurbation.

The remaining articles are hilarious, playful, digressionary and even oddly moving (rare for this master satirist). Steadman's grotesque drawings are as piquant as ever.

[Grim-Anal King · Rating 4 out of 5]

Self's psychogeography is his best stuff, an area to which his clever dick, misanthropic approach is well suited. This collection largely hits the mark.

[Bryan Fox · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's hard not to get caught up in Self's gleeful, sardonic linguistic acrobatics, his pure joy in describing (and laying into) the world around him. This, a follow-up to the first volume of Psychogeography, is another collection of travel/social commentary columns from his series for The Independent. The sheer complexity of language that he employs makes it difficult to imagine how this could have been a regular column in a major newspaper over the course of several years, but it was, and the columns serve as a testament to his keen eye and boundless curiosity for traversing and immersing himself in the wild world around us.

The opening essay, a long-form evisceration of the UAE, is exhilarating, but the rest of the collection is just a series of two-pagers, and it sometimes feels like the (very) short essay is neither the best form nor forum for Self to employ so as to play to his strengths. Nonetheless, it's a fun ride, a collection with some real pearls to reward the persistent diver.

[Jeremy Jl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Weird word wizardry from Will!

[R.]

Made me kind of happy/sad: the book is dedicated to Claire (Walsh) and in memory of J.G. Ballard: complete with a Ralph Steadman drawing of a long, top-down hot-pink hotrod peeling out on an anatomy-textbook skeleton - perhaps a representation of Ballard's soul (or brainwaves, brainpulses - whatever pleases most) as The Ultimate Dreamcar, burning rubber on its final exit - the waving of the green flag - escaping from the flesh towards the star-blind vanishing point. (Jan. 1,2010)

***