Umbrella

"A brother is as easily forgotten as an umbrella."—James Joyce, \*Ulysses\*Radical and uncompromising, Umbrella is a tour de force from one of England’s most acclaimed contemporary writers, and Self’s most ambitious novel to date. Moving between Edwardian London and a suburban mental hospital in 1971, Umbrella exposes the twentieth century’s technological searchlight as refracted through the dark glass of a long term mental institution. While making his first tours of the hospital at which he has just begun working, maverick psychiatrist Zachary Busner notices that many of the patients exhibit a strange physical tic: rapid, precise movements that they repeat over and over. One of these patients is Audrey Dearth, an elderly woman born in the slums of West London in 1890. Audrey’s memories of a bygone Edwardian London, her lovers, involvement with early feminist and socialist movements, and, in particular, her time working in an umbrella shop, alternate with Busner’s attempts to treat her condition and bring light to her clouded world. Busner’s investigations into Audrey’s illness lead to discoveries about her family that are shocking and tragic.ReviewIn these culturally straitened times few writers would have the artistic effrontery to offer us a novel as daring, exuberant and richly dense as Umbrella. Will Self has carried the Modernist challenge into the twenty-first century, and worked a wonder John Banville Umbrella is his best book yet ... It makes new for today the lessons taught by the morals of Catch 22, Slaughterhouse Five, The Tin Drum, also Marquez's Chronicle of a Death Foretold Alasdair Gray Self has never been shortlisted for the Booker, but Umbrella is such a linguistically adept, emotionally subtle and ethically complex novel that this could and should be his year Guardian A tour de force ... Despite the bleakness of the message, by the end you are filled with elation at the author's exuberant ambition and the swaggering way he carries it all off, and then a huge sense of deflation at the realisation that whatever book you read next, it won't be anything like this Daily Mail A dazzling feat of imagination and structure: a sprawling, lyrical, stream-of-consciousness narrative that squares up to modernism and brings it kicking and screaming into the 21st century ... stomach-lurchingly ambitious Observer The reader is snagged on moments of brilliance and, most thrilling of all, left to make her own connections Daily Telegraph Umbrella is a magnificent celebration of modernist prose, an epic account of the first world war, a frightening investigation into the pathology of mental illness ... must be recognised as, above all, a virtuoso triumph of emotional and creative intelligence Spectator Kind of amazing ... It may not be his easiest, but I think this may be Will Self's best book Sam Leith, Observer About the AuthorWill Self is the author of six short-story collections, a book of novellas, eight novels, and six collections of journalism. He lives in London. Weaving together a dense tapestry of consciousness and a century of lived life, Will Self sets out to understand the nature of the modern world.In 1918, Audrey Death, a munitions worker, succumbs to the new encephalitis lethargica epidemic, which kills a third of its victims and condemns a further third to living death. Fifty-three years later, Audrey lies supine under the curious gaze of Dr Busner in Friern Mental Hospital, her home for half a century. In 2010, the now-retired doctor scours north London in search of the truth about that tumultuous summer - when he woke his post-encephalitic patients using a new and powerful drug."Will Self's latest novel, the Booker-shortlisted Umbrella, is a strange and sprawling modernist experiment that takes the human mind as its subject and, like the human mind, is infinitely capacious, wretchedly petty and ultimately magnificent, even in its defects." - Annalisa Quinn, NPR"Warning: “Umbrella” is what’s known as a “difficult” novel. If that sounds as appealing as a difficult pregnancy, stop reading now. But if you enjoy challenges, in literature as well as life, read on because “Umbrella,” which was a finalist for this year’s Booker Prize, is a virtuosic performance." - Steven Moore, The Washington PostWill Self is an English novelist, journalist, political commentator and television personality. He is the author of ten novels, five collections of shorter fiction, three novellas, and five collections of non-fiction writing. A brother is as easily forgotten as an umbrella. James Joyce, Ulysses It is 1971, and Zachary Busner is a maverick psychiatrist who has just begun working at a mental hospital in suburban north London. As he tours the hospitals wards, Busner notes that some of the patients are exhibiting a very peculiar type of physical tic: rapid, precise movements that they repeat over and over. These patients do not react to outside stimuli and are trapped inside an internal world. The patient that most draws Busners interest is a certain Audrey Dearth, an elderly woman born in the slums of West London in 1890, who is completely withdrawn and catatonically tics with her hands, turning handles and spinning wheels in the air. Busners investigations into the condition of Audrey and the other patients alternate with sections told from Audreys point of view, a stream of memories of a bustling bygone Edwardian London where horse-drawn carts roamed the streets. In internal monologue, Audrey recounts her childhood, her work as a clerk in an umbrella shop, her time as a factory munitionette during World War I, and the very different fates of her two brothers. Busners attempts to break through to Audrey and the other patients lead to unexpected results, and, in Audreys case, discoveries about her familys role in her illness that are shocking and tragic. A Brother Is As Easily Forgotten As An Umbrella. James Joyce, Ulysses Recently Having Abandoned His Rd Laing-influenced Experiment In Running A Therapeutic Community - The So-called Concept House In Willesden - Maverick Psychiatrist Zack Busner Arrives At Friern Hospital, A Vast Victorian Mental Asylum In North London, Under A Professional And A Marital Cloud. He Has Every Intention Of Avoiding Controversy, But Then He Encounters Audrey Dearth, A Working-class Girl From Fulham Born In 1890 Who Has Been Immured In Friern For Decades. A Socialist, A Feminist And A Munitions Worker At The Woolwich Arsenal, Audrey Fell Victim To The Encephalitis Lethargica Sleeping Sickness Epidemic At The End Of The First World War And, Like One Of The Subjects In Oliver Sacks' Awakenings, Has Been In A Coma Ever Since. Realising That Audrey Is Just One Of A Number Of Post-encephalitics Scattered Throughout The Asylum, Busner Becomes Involved In An Attempt To Bring Them Back To Life - With Wholly Unforeseen Consequences. En kvinde, født i 1890, er indlagt på et sindssygehospital i London lidende af den sovesyge, som ramte mange mennesker i kølvandet på den 1. verdenskrig. Hun befinder sig i konstant coma, men da psykiateren Zack Busner i 1971 bliver ansat på hospitalet, fatter han interesse for hendes tilfælde. Hans forsøg på at bringe hende tilbage til livet får imidlertid uforudsete konsekvenser SHORTLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2012 The major new novel by the author of Great Apes, How the Dead Live and The Book of Dave