One Hand Clapping

Description

Janet Shirley was always impressed by her husband. Even before he began using his special talent to change their lives beyond recognition. The thing is, Janet doesn't want their lives to change that much -she's quite happy, working at the supermarket, cooking for Howard three times a day, watching quiz shows in the evening. But once Howard unleashes his photographic brain on the world, the once modest used-car salesman can't seem to stop. But what he sees as the logical conclusion isn't something Janet can agree to. She will not consent to Howard's grand gesture. Written out of Burgess' disgust at western decadence and degradation, One Hand Clapping casts a jaded eye over our values, drawing a conclusion that still resonates fifty years on.

Anthony Burgess (1917-1993) was a novelist, poet, playwright, composer, linguist, translator and critic. He is best known for his novel A Clockwork Orange, but altogether he wrote thirty-three novels, twenty-five works of non-fiction, two volumes of autobiography, three symphonies, more than 150 other musical works, reams of journalism and much more. He was born in Manchester, England and grew up in Harpurhey and Moss Side, went to school in Rusholme, and studied at Manchester University. He lived in Malaya, Malta, Monaco, Italy and the US, amongst other places, and is still widely read all over the world.

Intriguing, offering an incisive commentary on the Americanisation of the UK, and on the way TV acts as an opiate of the masses * Independent * A funny, pointed novel * New Yorker * Witty and shrewdly joyful * New York Times Book Review * One of the cleverest and most original writers of his generation * The Times *