My Idea of Fun

Will Self's audacious debut novel My Idea of Fun announces the arrival of a fearlessly original voice in contemporary fiction. This darkly comic, linguistically pyrotechnic work tells the story of Ian Wharton, an ordinary young man growing up in Saltdean, Sussex, until he falls under the influence of a grotesquely charismatic figure known variously as Mr. Broadhurst, Samuel Northcliff, and ultimately "the Fat Controller."

Wharton possesses an eidetic memory that allows him to freeze and enter images at will—a gift that becomes a curse when his Svengali-like mentor initiates him into the dark arts of marketing, manipulation, and modern capitalism. As the Fat Controller reveals his god-like powers, the novel spirals into increasingly surreal and disturbing territory, offering a savage critique of consumer culture and the commodification of the human soul.

Critics praised Self's technical virtuosity and compared him to literary giants like Nabokov, Pynchon, and DeLillo. The New York Times noted Self's "intelligence and ambition . . . inventive comedy, heartbreak and levity," while the Los Angeles Times declared that Self had "caused more of an electric ripple among readers than any British writer of his half-generation."

This is Self's first novel, following his acclaimed short story collections The Quantity Theory of Insanity and Cock & Bull. It established him as a master of what one critic called "dirty magic realism"—a blend of the quotidian and the fantastical that captures the psychosis and moral emptiness of late capitalism. The 1993 first American edition is particularly sought after by collectors of contemporary British fiction.