Description

‘Elaine is not just a serious work of art, but an unexpected act of filial generosity’ Guardian

Standing by the mailbox in Ithaca, New York, Elaine thinks of her child and husband, an Ivy League academic, inside her house and wonders…is this it? As she begins to push back against the strictures of her life in 1950s America, she undertakes a disastrous affair that ends her marriage and upends her life.

Based on the intimate diaries Will Self’s mother kept for over forty years, Elaine is a writer’s attempt to reach the almost unimaginable realm of a parent’s interior life prior to his own existence. Perhaps the first work of auto-oedipal fiction, Elaine shows Self working in an exciting new dimension, utilizing his stylistic talents to tremendous effect.

Publisher Review

A shattering portrait of a woman trapped by her domestic responsibilities and lingering “postpartum neurosis”….Self pulls off a painfully authentic depiction of Elaine’s interior life, doing justice to her fierce anger and sexual desire along with her fears and humiliations. This is a tour de force. * Publishers Weekly (starred review) * A deft character study that balances social criticism (Elaine worries that John’s ill-kempt, wrinkled shirt
will get her labelled a slattern) with the strive toward personhood * Booklist * A striking study of a woman on the verge * Kirkus Reviews *