The Sweet Smell of Psychosis

Infobox Book
title_orig=
translator=


image_caption= The Book's Cover
name= The Sweet Smell of Psychosis
author= Will Self
illustrator=
cover_artist=
country= United Kingdom
language= English
series=
genre= Novella
publisher= Bloomsbury Publishing
release_date= 15 May 1997
media_type= Print (Paperback)
sales=
pages= 92 pp
isbn= ISBN 978-0747531548
preceded_by= Grey Area 1994
followed_by= Design Faults in the Volvo 760 Turbo 1998

"The Sweet Smell of Psychosis" is Will Self's first published Novella. It was printed by Bloomsbury Books in 1996 and features illustrations by Martin Rowson.

Richard Hermes is a London journalist who lives a life of drudging days and cocaine fuelled nights. He falls in with a local media personality called Bell and his crew which includes the delightful and attractive Ursula. Ursula is also a media type writing a good sex column. As Richard attempts to get closer and closer to her, he finds himself consuming more and more until finally psychosis begins to break in.

In reviewing the book Katherine Guckenberger concludes:

"Self's message is clear: life is ugly and ironic, and the sooner one figures this out, the sooner one can not overcome it but accept it." [http://weeklywire.com/ww/11-08-99/boston_books_1.html Boston Phoenix Review]

Brian Budzynski writing for the Center for Book Culture observed:

"Self’s satirical indictment of urban literary culture is defined within his prose by Richard’s voice, “brusque to the point of rank rudeness.” With an air of contempt and “expensively studied disregard,” Self’s characters endeavor to persevere within the “knots of desperation” that they have created. One can’t help but think that Self implicates himself as a fellow “hack”; his language perfectly reflects a subculture that is as mysterious as it is dangerous and intriguing." [http://www.centerforbookculture.org/review/bookreviews/00_1/sweetsmell.html Center for Book culture ]

Other works

Novels by the author

*"Cock and Bull" (1992)
*"My Idea of Fun" (1993)
*"Great Apes" (1997)
*"How the Dead Live" (2000)
*"Dorian, an Imitation" (2002)
*"The Book of Dave" (2006)
*"The Butt" (Scheduled 2008)

hort story collections by the author

*"The Quantity Theory of Insanity" (short stories) 1991
*" Grey Area" (short stories) 1994
*"The Sweet Smell of Psychosis" (illustrated novella) 1996
*"Design Faults in the Volvo 760 Turbo" (short stories) 1998
*"Tough, Tough Toys for Tough, Tough Boys" (short stories) 1998
*"Dr. Mukti and Other Tales of Woe" (short stories) 2004
*"Liver: A Fictional Organ with a Surface Anatomy of Four Lobes" (short stories) 2008
*"The Undivided Self: Selected Stories" (short stories) Scheduled 2009

Non-fiction works by the author

* "Junk Mail" (1996)
* "Perfidous Man" (2000)
* "Sore Sites" (2000)
* "Feeding Frenzy" (2001)
* "Psychogeography" (2007)

References

External links

* [http://www.will-self.com Official Will Self site]
*imdb name|id=1107102|name=Will Self