Elaine

By: Will Self

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Paperback | 4 November 2025

At a Glance

Paperback
304 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
19.7 x 13.0

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''Elaine is not just a serious work of art, but an unexpected act of filial generosity'' Guardian

Standing by the mailbox in Ithaca, New York, Elaine thinks of her child and husband, an Ivy League academic, inside her house and wonders...is this it? 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.

Based on the intimate diaries Will Self''s mother kept for over forty years, Elaine 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, Elaine shows Self working in an exciting new dimension, utilizing his stylistic talents to tremendous effect.

Industry Reviews

"'An extraordinary portrait of the female soul under the conditions of 20th-century misogyny...Elaine is not just a serious work of art, but an unexpected act of filial generosity' -- Sandra Newman - Guardian
'A remarkable period piece...In magnifying her voice so we too can hear her screams across the decades, Elaine is a son's spectacular attempt to give his mother the agency and freedom she was denied' -- Lucy Scholes - Telegraph
'It is not a roman-a-clef...but a work of art in its own right' -- Stuart Kelly - Scotland on Sunday
'For a writer who has been so concerned with the nature of masculinity, it's an interesting move for Self to dive into the feminine. This he does with immense empathy and success...If it is one of the purposes of fiction to imagine another person's unknowable consciousness - and it is certainly Self's grand project to try - he has here achieved that rarest of things. He has shown that understanding is possible, across generations and across time.' - Spectator
'A shattering portrait of a woman trapped by her domestic responsibilities and lingering ""postpartum neurosis""....Self pulls off a painfully authentic depiction of Elaine's interior life, doing justice to her fierce anger and sexual desire along with her fears and humiliations. This is a tour de force.' - Publishers Weekly (starred review)
'A deft character study that balances social criticism (Elaine worries that John's ill-kempt, wrinkled shirt will get her labelled a slattern) with the strive toward personhood' - Booklist
'A striking study of a woman on the verge' - Kirkus Reviews"

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