{"product_id":"elaine-9780802165435","title":"Elaine","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe Booker-shortlisted author of \u003ci\u003eUmbrella\u003c\/i\u003e writes his most American novel yet--a brilliant portrait of a 1950s housewife, based on the life of the author's mother, and an exploration of sexual freedom and sublimated desire\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWill Self is one of the most inimitable contemporary writers in the English language, dubbed \"the most daring and delightful novelist of his generation\" by \u003ci\u003eThe Guardian\u003c\/i\u003e. In this brilliantly conceived new novel Self turns his forensic eye and technicolor imagination to the troubled life of his mother, Elaine. Standing by the mailbox outside 1100 Hemlock Street in Ithaca, New York, Elaine thinks of her husband and child inside her house and wonders: \u003ci\u003eis this . . . it? \u003c\/i\u003eAs she begins to push back against the strictures of her life in 1950s America, she undertakes a disastrous affair that places her marriage to an Ivy League academic and former Communist Party member in peril. Based on the intimate diaries Self's mother kept for over forty years, \u003ci\u003eElaine\u003c\/i\u003e is a writer's attempt to reach the almost unimaginable realm: a parent's interior life prior to his own existence. Perhaps the first work of auto-oedipal fiction, \u003ci\u003eElaine\u003c\/i\u003e shows Will Self working in an exciting new dimension, employing his stylistic talents to tremendous effect.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWill Self\u003c\/b\u003e is the author of many novels and books of nonfiction, including \u003ci\u003eGreat Apes\u003c\/i\u003e; \u003ci\u003eHow the Dead Live\u003c\/i\u003e, which was shortlisted for the Whitbread Novel of the Year; \u003ci\u003eThe Butt\u003c\/i\u003e, winner of the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction; \u003ci\u003eUmbrella\u003c\/i\u003e, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize; \u003ci\u003eShark\u003c\/i\u003e; \u003ci\u003ePhone\u003c\/i\u003e; the memoir \u003ci\u003eWill\u003c\/i\u003e; and the essay collection \u003ci\u003eWhy Read\u003c\/i\u003e. He lives in South London.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Grove Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51615412027666,"sku":"9780802165435","price":12.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_67f40d34-dfbd-4ee8-9e7b-4cc7627989b7.jpg?v=1758095042","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/elaine-9780802165435","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}