Elaine

<p><b>''<i>Elaine </i>is not just a serious work of art, but an unexpected act of filial generosity'' <i>Guardian</i></b><br><br>Standing by the mailbox in Ithaca, New York, Elaine thinks of her child and husband, an Ivy League academic, inside her house and wonders...<i>is this it?</i> As she begins to push back against the strictures of her life in 1950s America, she undertakes a disastrous affair that ends her marriage and upends her life.<br><br>Based on the intimate diaries Will Self''s mother kept for over forty years, <i>Elaine</i> is a writer''s attempt to reach the almost unimaginable realm of a parent''s interior life prior to his own existence. Perhaps the first work of auto-oedipal fiction, <i>Elaine</i> shows Self working in an exciting new dimension, utilizing his stylistic talents to tremendous effect.</p>