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House Mother NormalA Geriatric Comedy

Format: Paperback

Condition: Standard Secondhand — £77.98
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House Mother Normal is a remarkable study of old age. It is also a major modern novel. B.S. Johnson's achievement in this 'geriatric comedy' was to deploy his prodigious technical skills and inventiveness to explore the minds of the old with precision, humour and unflagging compassion. He recognised its technical difficulties:'What I wanted to do was to take an evening in an old people's home, and see a single set of events through the eyes of not less than eight old people. Due to the various deformities and deficiencies of the inmates, these events would seem to be progressively "abnormal" to the reader. At the end there would be the viewpoint of the House Mother, an apparently "normal" person, and the events themselves would then be seen to be so bizarre that everything that had come before would seem "normal" by comparison.'Making each speaker's section follow the same chronological sequence, not only page by page but also line by line, he achieves a disturbingly vivid multi-dimensional effect.

Genre: Fiction, Contemporary
Format: Paperback
Published: 1984
Pages: 204
Publisher: Bloodaxe Books
ISBN: 9780906427620

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Our conditions mean the following:

  • New - a brand new book
  • Almost New - appears new but is actually secondhand.
  • Very Good - only minor imperfections such as minor scuffs to edge or cover or a price written in pencil or shop sticker.
  • Standard Secondhand - Clearly been read before, but not too bad. We do not recommend these for gifting. Spines usually creased. Could also include creases or folds to cover, some writing such as in the cover or elsewhere, underlining or highlighting, but might not do. Possibly some stains or marks. Similar in general to books in any secondhand shop or charity shop.
  • Poor Condition - Usually this will have a specific problem such as writing inside, water damage, missing dust jacket, heavy staining, large creases or cuts. These are readable copies but not nice ones. On other websites this condition is called 'Acceptable' or 'Fair' , but we want to be more honest.
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