''Phone'' is the eleventh novel by

Will Self William Woodard Self (born 26 September 1961) is an English author, journalist, political commentator and broadcaster. He has written 11 novels, five collections of shorter fiction, three novellas and nine collections of non-fiction writing. Sel ...

, published in 2017. It concludes a "modernist" trilogy also consisting of ''

Umbrella An umbrella or parasol is a folding canopy supported by wooden or metal ribs that is usually mounted on a wooden, metal, or plastic pole. It is designed to protect a person against rain or sunlight. The term ''umbrella'' is traditionally used ...

'' and ''

Shark Sharks are a group of elasmobranch fish characterized by a cartilaginous skeleton, five to seven gill slits on the sides of the head, and pectoral fins that are not fused to the head. Modern sharks are classified within the clade Selachimo ...

''.

Content

The

stream-of-consciousness In literary criticism, stream of consciousness is a narrative mode or method that attempts "to depict the multitudinous thoughts and feelings which pass through the mind" of a narrator. The term was coined by Daniel Oliver in 1840 in ''First Li ...

novel continues the story of psychiatrist

Zack Busner Zack Busner is a recurring character in the fiction of British author Will Self, appearing in the short story collections '' The Quantity Theory of Insanity'', ''Grey Area'', '' Dr. Mukti and Other Tales of Woe'', the novels ''Great Apes'', '' The B ...

Reviews

Writing for ''

The Sunday Herald The ''Sunday Herald'' was a Scottish Sunday newspaper, published between 7 February 1999 and 2 September 2018. Originally a broadsheet, it was published in compact format from 20 November 2005. The paper was known for having combined a centre- ...

'', Todd McEwan wrote: "You begin to realise that this is not art, and it’s not even satire. It’s just stuff that oozes out of a writer who is floundering in the tar pit of the establishment.

Jon Day Sir Jonathan Stephen Day (born 23 April 1954) is a retired British Civil Servant lately serving as the Chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee and Head of the Joint Intelligence Organisation at the Cabinet Office. Day initially trained ...

, writing for ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', noted: "''Phone'' isn’t an attempt to inhabit the language of modernism but an attempt to exhaust a style. There’s still plenty of fun to be had spotting references to Self’s lodestars...It’ll take you a couple of weeks to read all three novels properly. But I can’t think of a better way to spend your time."Phone by Will Self review – a triumph of joined-up thinking
The Guardian

References

External links

Official Will Self site
2017 British novels Novels by Will Self Postmodern novels Viking Press books {{postmodern-novel-stub