![]() ![]() As he says himself, the real point about the conjunction of art and evil ‘is not that the megalomaniac is a failed artist but that the artist is a timid megalomaniac.’ It is a nice distinction. He is a middle-aged gourmand, scholar and monstre damné he is also a kind of artist, with an artist’s ambition, ruthlessness and greed for recognition. ![]() The narrator, Tarquin – real name Rodney – Winot, is a wonderful invention, at once appalling and appealing, if only for the pathos of his self-delusions, and lucidly, utterly, mad. ![]() Polished, assured, intricately plotted and immaculately written, it is a work any long-established novelist would be proud to claim. Hard to believe that, when it came out in 1996, it really was John Lanchester’s first book. The Debt to Pleasure is, among many other things, one of the most remarkable debut novels of recent decades. ![]()
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