The Art of Failing: Notes from the Underdog

Description

HAUNTED! By endless tiny humiliations. STRUGGLING! To resurrect the corpse of his literary career. ENSNARED! In a loving yet perplexing marriage. Anthony McGowan is a man at odds with the universe. Stumbling from one improbable fiasco to the next, patrolling the mean streets of West Hampstead like some unholy cross between Columbo, J. Alfred Prufrock and a common tramp, he ponders the very stuff of life itself. For McGowan that's holed socks, unsatisfactory packed lunches, athlete's foot powder, Kierkegaard, the eccentricities of the British Library, liver salts, Morrissey and disapproving ladies on trains... Relentlessly honest, exquisitely funny, The Art of Failing is a paean to the glory and desperation of everyday existence.

Anthony McGowan worked as a nightclub bouncer, civil servant and Open University tutor before he became an award-winning YA author. His The Knife that Killed Me became a film in 2013. He lives in Camden, north-west London, with his wife and two children.

'The funniest book was Anthony McGowan's The Art of Failing, which alternates self-mocking slapstick with flashes of weirdness reminiscent of Gogol.' * Observer, Books of the Year * 'He fails spectacularly successfully it has to be said. If cringeworthy embarrassment were a superpower, Anthony would be an Avenger. It is Pepys' diary if Pepys were a middle-aged, 21st-century Smiths fan with athlete's foot. You'll laugh and feel mild pity.' -- Matt Haig 'Perfect to dip into for entertainingly bite-sized anecdotes.' * Observer * 'There is no sharper, funnier, cleverer writer in Britain today than Anthony McGowan.' -- Robert Twigger, author of Micromastery 'A book that will ultimately make you smile, and re-read'. * BookBag * 'Humorously chronicles the quotidian frustrations, discomforts, and outright failures...faced over the course of one year... McGowan always brings a quirky and refreshing perspective... Entertaining.' * Kirkus * 'A children's book writer and school lecturer who swears like a sailor and adds smut wherever possible. McGowan's as close to a Python character as one could reasonably fear. There's no stereotyping Anthony McGowan.' * San Francisco Review of Books * 'Consistently amusing, charming, and occasionally rather touching.' * Big Issue *