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Dreams of Sex and Stage Diving

Martin Millar

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Paperback

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English
Soft Skull Press
13 April 2010
Elfish's friends live hand to mouth in a bleak section of London, squatting, seeing local bands, getting high, and feeling bitter over lost ambitions. Except Elfish, who pursues exactly what she wants with demonic single-mindedness. Elfish rarely eats, never washes, and is devoted to Queen Mab — both the Shakespearian fairy, “deliverer of dreams,"" and her thrash metal band, formed with her attractive but dimwitted lover, Mo. When Mo jilts her and calls his new band Queen Mab, Elfish is determined to keep the name for her own band and sets about getting revenge. To stop Mo, Elfish is obliged to steal, cheat, and lie to everyone around her. Happily, Elfish is a compulsive liar, and quite fond of cheating and stealing. On the night Mo's band is to play, he and his friends laugh cruelly around her. The people she has deceived turn on her viciously. It is up to Elfish whether to give up hope or to rally, proving to all the power of her will. A fearless stage diver and shameless purveyor of bad sex, Elfish stands alone. Surrounded by people who have given up hope, only she will not put down her guitar. Only she refuses to stop dreaming.
By:  
Imprint:   Soft Skull Press
Country of Publication:   United States
Dimensions:   Height: 210mm,  Width: 140mm,  Spine: 18mm
Weight:   215g
ISBN:   9781593762339
ISBN 10:   159376233X
Pages:   222
Publication Date:  
Audience:   General/trade ,  ELT Advanced
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Inactive

Martin Millar was born in Glasgow, Scotland, but has lived in London, England, for a long time. He has written a lot of things--novels and plays and short stories and articles. His newest novel is Suzy, Led Zeppelin and Me, and it's set in Glasgow. Millar has written six other novels- Love and Peace with Melody Paradise; Milk, Sulphate and Alby Starvation; Lux the Poet; The Good Fairies of New York; Dreams of Sex and Stage Diving and Ruby; and The Stone Age Diet. Millar likes Jane Austen novels, and wrote a stage play of Emma. He even wrote the novelization of the Tank Girl movie. Last, but not least, as Martin Scott, Millar writes the Thraxas series of books. There are five so far, and he won the World Fantasy Award for the first one. When he's not writing, Millar likes to watch Buffy The Vampire Slayer, read history books, especially if they're about ancient Greece, and play the flute.

Reviews for Dreams of Sex and Stage Diving

Praise for Dreams of Sex and Stage Diving The grubby demimonde of London's Brixton district serves as the backdrop for this low-rent rock-and-roll tale ... Millar laces dry, droll humor throughout his depictions of his antiheroine's lies, manipulations, and unabashed self-regard. --Publishers Weekly Praise for Martin Millar I've been a fan of his work for almost twenty years. --Neil Gaiman [T]he funniest writer in Britain today. --GQ Brixton's answer to Kurt Vonnegut. --Uncut Imagine Kurt Vonnegut reading Marvel Comics with The Clash thrashing in the background. For the deceptively simple poetry of the everyday, nobody does it better. Just check out...the Highlands-bred, New York Dolls-obsessed fairies for yourself. --The List (UK) Martin Millar is the master of urban angst. His books are instantly compelling. --ID [U]ndeniably brilliant. --The Guardian Praise for Lux the Poet Millar uses all of the elements of his story ... to build a batshit atmosphere in which humor and the grim specter of class tension can play. --Time Out Chicago A welcome supplement from an underrated artist. --Kirkus An uncommon voice in the wilderness of fantasy novelists. --Publishers Weekly Praise for Milk, Sulphate, and Alby Starvation Milk is a giddy journey, an amusement park ride, an enchantment like A Midsummer Night's Dream. --The New York Times Book Review The dizzying array of characters and perspectives whips Millar's madcap story into a potent blitz that runs at full throttle through the satisfying conclusion. Fans of Irvine Welsh will love Millar's singularly entertaining tale of suspicious minds. --Publishers Weekly Creates a patchwork of a novel that is fresh, clever, and compulsively readable ... Millar's novel so thoroughly embraces its narrator's paranoia that I found myself questioning my own sense of reality. Even so, real or not, I loved this book. --Bookslut A low-life fairy tale, Milk preserves a strong sense of hard-earned realism ... one comes to feel thoroughly under the influence of Millar's lively, hurtling prose. --Bookforum Millar's first novel receives a welcome re-issue. The story of how Alby, the Brixton speed-dealer and all-round low-life, attempts to evade characters who are set on rubbing him out evokes amphetamine-induced paranoia without ever approaching a cliche. These days the drugs have changed, but this entertaining fable, which is alternately surreal and grubbily realistic, still delights. --The Times (UK) Pop cultural references are everywhere in this frantic cultish debut which takes an Irvine Welsh-esque turn. --The Guardian Written in 1987, this welcome re-issue is a masterful work that goes straight to the heart of a spurned generation, alive and not so well, in Thatcher's revolting (in both meanings of the word) Britain. Much of this novel is pontification brought alive by a particularly visceral strain of urban angst and, as such, pre-dates James Kelman's How Late It Was, How Late. Alby Starvation is a wonderful creation, a character solidified from the blood that ran down the streets of Brixton during the riots. A work of rare genius and truly cult, it deserves a place on your book shelf next to Hubert Selby Jr's Last Exit To Brooklyn. --The List Martin Millar created a minor classic with his exciting, surreal and funny debut novel. It is strange, quirky and entertaining to the end. --What's On London What's allergic to milk, collects comics, sells speed, likes The Fall and lives in Brixton? Alby Starvation, the first true British anti-hero of the giro generation. A strange and wonderful story, I've yet to meet someone who has not enjoyed it. --NME A classic tale of Brixton low-life. **** --Uncut A crazed comedy of Brixton lowlife, drugs and martial arts. --The Face Praise for Suzy, Led Zepplin, and Me Even readers who last listened to Houses of the Holy during the Reagan administration will find much to enjoy here. For 200 pages, Glasgow circa 1972 shimmers like a vision of Atlantis, a lost world. --Ed Park, The Los Angeles Times His finest. --Daily Telegraph Part romance, nostalgia trip and musical memory ... the story of Suzy, Led Zeppelin and Martin Millar is a hip and canny gem of a novel wrapped up in cheesecloth and patchouli. There is a strong smell of melancholy, but that goes with the territory of nostalgia ... [A] heartfelt tale of teen emotional toothache. --Bookmunch Praise for Lonely Werewolf Girl It's so compelling you don't want to it end. The grungy, gory, glorious world that World Fantasy Award--winner Millar has created is unforgettable. --Booklist [A] loving tribute to disaffection and the hopefulness of youth. --Publishers Weekly Every detail in this book is rich and deep and thoughtful; Millar gives his characters the time and attention they deserve and because of that, readers finds themselves with far more story then werewolf fans have come to expect. It is Laurell K. Hamilton at her plot-filled very best, Stephen King in The Stand, even Charles Dickens. Kalix is a teenage killer who can barely contain her rage at the world and Millar makes you love her. The fact that this is sincerely accomplished through the text is really quite remarkable and a testament to the writing ability of this so very talented, and sharply creative, author. --Bookslut


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