Noughties
Published on 2. February 2012
Book
Paperback/Softback
288 pages
978-0-241-14526-5 (ISBN)
Description
Eliot Lamb has dreaded this moment for the past three years of his life: the final night of university. Gathered with his mates in the King's Arms, he begins the ultimate descent - Pub, Bar, Club. Staring into the foam of his first pint, he knows that before the night reaches its climactic conclusion on the sweaty dance-floor of Filth, he must solve the dilemma of his knotty love-life, risk his closest friendship, face up to a tragic secret, and deal with the fact that he hasn't a clue what to do with the rest of his life. And with the entire literary canon running wild in his imagination and a series of ominous text messages lighting up his mobile phone, things aren't going to be easy.
Noughties is an inventive and lyrical comic novel about the highs and lows of modern university life. Eliot may know a lot about Renaissance poetry, the post-modern novel, French literary theory, and how to get hammered at a highly competitive rate, but he is fast realising that adulthood beckons, and it's going to be asking a lot more of him than that.
Noughties is an inventive and lyrical comic novel about the highs and lows of modern university life. Eliot may know a lot about Renaissance poetry, the post-modern novel, French literary theory, and how to get hammered at a highly competitive rate, but he is fast realising that adulthood beckons, and it's going to be asking a lot more of him than that.
Reviews / Votes
There's something of the early Martin Amis in Ben Masters' debut novel * Dazed & Confused * If you've been to university recently, this confident debut will infuriate you, make you laugh, trigger lots of nostalgia and leave you with a knowing smile * Time Out * Noughties is painful to read. Painful because it's funny and wildly literate and all too reminiscent of those lost nights finding your way in life through the puke, tongues and drinking games of your fellow students. It's real and tender and hilarious -- Nikesh Shukla, author of the Costa First Novel-shortlisted Coconut Unlimited Intelligent and entertaining . . . like early Martin Amis, it is an attempt to say something honest and even modest under a superficially flashy stylistic surface * Sunday Times * A bittersweet hymn to the high jinks of student days, by turns funny and tender . . . a street-smart novel for our times * Financial Times * All-singing, all-dancing style, full of flourishes and wordplay . . . genuine comic talent * Daily Mail * Moving and relatable * The Times * Masters is expert on the rhythms and textures of the student experience * Times Literary Supplement *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Penguin Books Ltd
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 153 mm
Thickness: 20 mm
Weight
377 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-241-14526-5 (9780241145265)
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Schweitzer Classification
Person
Ben Masters is twenty-four years old. He attended Roade Comprehensive in Northampton and went to Oxford University in 2005. He has just embarked upon a PhD in English at Cambridge University. Noughties is his first novel.