Self indulgent
Dr Mukti and Other Tales of Woe, Will Self
A great deal of the power of Will Self's fiction has always come from his commitment to trampling on what he'd probably call “the tawdry illusions we hold most dear”. Self rarely scores highly for subtlety, but his acerbity marks are consistently sky-high. His latest work, Dr Mukti and Other Tales of Woe, sees the author reemploying trademark themes of psychosis, psychiatry and the urban environment.
This is an important book for Self, who's undeniably beginning to take on the mantle of the establishment. Having been in the vanguard of British fiction for about a decade, as well as being a prolific journalist and broadcaster, even his admirers will be looking to Dr Mukti for proof that Self can still deliever full-length books with the caustic wit and incisive satire that made his name.
Dr Mukti and Other Tales of Woe consists of one long story or novella, as well as four shorter and unrelated pieces. The central story concerns Shiva Mukti, a beleaguered psychiatrist in the dilapidated St Mungo's hospital in London who gradually gets drawn into a conflict with his pompous media-personality colleague Dr Zack Busner.
The twist (for Self never can do something straightforward) is that Mukti and Busner do battle through the medium of psychiatric patients, referring to each other cases that become increasingly problematic and dangerous.
The other stories – less successful than the opener – are 161, about a pensioner with a delinquent stowaway in his flat; The Fiveswing Walk, which follows a weekend dad round the grotty parks of London; Conversations with Ord, a surreal account of two friends who converse in the guise of fictional characters; and Return to the Planet of the Humans, a sort of postscript to the best of Self's novels, Great Apes.
Sadly, by reminding the reader of this masterwork the author only draws attention to Dr Mukti's comparative weakness. Self's characteristic prose style: surreal, erudite and with a weakness for wordplay, is present in force. He's not likely to win any converts but nor will he be upsetting old fans.
Sometimes this style seems unnecessarily self-important, his description of half-eaten lunch as “craven cabbage, pusillanimous potato” will make most readers wince at the clumsy pretension, but there are also phrases of genius and some moments of real insight that help provide balance. One of the best aspects of the book is Dr Mukti's fictionalised London, which reads like a sort of baroque take on J. G.
Ballard; everything is alienating, faintly absurd and, most importantly, a reflection of an internal state of mind; each passing headlight is like a synapse spark in a collective, and almost certainly schizoid, organic consciousness. After a while, though, Self's palpable debt to the ‘New Journalism' of Hunter S. Thompson et al begins to irritate.
Dr Mukti is quotable and it's thought provoking but (and here's the rub) good stories or novellas need more than an arrestingly curious style and good concept to carry them. Journalism and fiction are very different crafts, and this – coupled with the fact that Self (by his own admission) is not very interested in character, leads to stories that are in some ways a bit flat and that just don't add up to the sum of their parts.
This is a great pity, because if something like Dr Mukti could equal the sum of its jokes, insights and vignettes it would be excellent. Dr Mukti and Other Tales of Woe isn't bad, but you get the feeling that Self – once a literary rebel fired from The Observer for taking cocaine on John Major's campaign bus, now appearing in the anodyne Shooting Stars – has lost his edge in fiction.
His journalism, however, always has been and continues to be sparkling with energy, humour and a boundless creativity, and this reviewer unhesitatingly recommends his two published collections Junk Mail and Feeding Frenzy. For a taste of classic Self, avoid Dr Mukti and check these out instead.
Will Self will be in Borders on 21st February talking about and signing copies of Dr Mukti and Other Tales of Woe.
17th Feb 2005