 First edition (UK) | |
| Author | Will Self |
|---|---|
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Viking Press (UK) Grove Press (US) |
Publication date | United Kingdom - September 4 |
| Pages | 480pp |
| ISBN | 978-0-670-91857-7 |
| Preceded by | Umbrella |
| Followed by | Phone |
Shark is the tenth novel by Will Self, published in 2014.
The stream-of-consciousness novel continues the story of psychiatrist Zack Busner.
The novel is written in a flowing fashion without chapters and with no paragraph breaks. It is "a book-length paragraph, beginning and ending mid-sentence", [1] which hops "between characters and time periods with the agility of a mountain goat." [2]
Self indicated that Umbrella was the first part of a trilogy against his own initial expectations. The final part of the trilogy is Phone .
 | This article needs a plot summary.(October 2023) |
| This section contains too many or overly lengthy quotations .(February 2023) |
The critical reception of Shark has been generally positive, with the challenging style of prose dividing opinion.
Writing for The Sunday Times , Theo Tait wrote... [3]
"Overall, Shark generates a dream-like synthesis of rational and irrational, familiar and strange... it’s clear that, with this trilogy, Self is creating something rather grand."
Stuart Kelly, writing for The Guardian wrote... [4]
"Shark" is angrier, more brutal and more intense: it made me furious, not melancholic. But the book itself is also a paean to books...."Shark" confirms that Self is the most daring and delightful novelist of his generation, a writer whose formidable intellect is mercilessly targeted on the limits of the cerebral as a means of understanding. Yes, he makes you think, but he also insists that you feel"
Writing for the New York Times, Mark Athitakis wrote... [5]
"Shark often reads like a baggy mess. Yet it’s a mess that reflects a respectable urge to capture the mental and social collapse Self sees as a legacy of the world wars."
Writing for The Times, Melissa Katsoulis wrote... [6]
"It’s bewildering, exhausting and so relentlessly out of focus that unless you are a disenfranchised English student hopped up on caffeine pills and a hatred of Thomas Hardy, you’re unlikely to make it through to the end, still less part with nearly £20 for it."
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