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Man-Eating Typewriter

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About this listen

'We're all in the gutter but some of us are ogling the sparkles.'

Set at the fag-end of the 60s at the moment when Swinging London is starting to take on a darker hue in the wake of Charles Manson's murders, and framed as a novel within a novel published by a seedy Piccadilly-based publisher of pulp fiction, Man-Eating Typewriter is a homage to the great oulipo experiments in fiction.

It is the story of a psychopath called Raymond Novak and his untimely demise told entirely in 'polari' - a language developed and used mainly amongst the metropolitan homosexual community in the time when being gay was still a criminal offence.

From a love affair with a Barbary Ape on the Rock of Gibraltar to erotic cabaret in Paris and unreliable adventures with Madam Ovary, Raymond's mother in the bombed-out ruins of Blitzed London, Man-Eating Typewriter is an act of seductive sedition by a writer with unfathomable literary talent and chutzpah.

Wild, transgressive, erotic, offensive and resolutely uncompromising, this marks the return of a writer who is out there on an island of his own making; a book that will be talked about, celebrated and misunderstood for decades.

©2023 Richard Milward (P)2023 Orion Publishing Group Limited Dark Humour Fiction Genre Fiction Humorous Literary Fiction Literature & Fiction Satire Comedy Crime England

Critic reviews

"A major talent." (Irvine Welsh)

"Remarkable, beautiful, magic. Like Ulysses for those who can't cope with reading Ulysses." (Paolo Hewitt)
All stars
Most relevant
A brilliant Odyssey of filth, perversion and life beyond convention. At first, without consulting a polari dictionary, I understood little but enjoyed the Ulysses rhythm and Clockwork Orange cadence - but as you read on and find understanding in the context as words are repeated, I was equally in hypnotic with the tale of the crazed but brilliant, hilarious and quongless Novak.
The novel within the novel framework works perfectly and the second narrator - a publisher explaining their thoughts and investigations on each chapter they receive is expertly portrayed by Graham.
When i first read the review for this - I thought - no on the no - I fancy this not. However, this is the most unique use of language i have ever heard - as well as the best thing i have read/heard to be produced this century.

Genius.

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