by Paul Bailey
First published 1977
Peter Smart sits down to examine his life's disappointments. He wants to catalog his personal shortcomings and make sense of where things went wrong. But as he digs into his past, the peculiar characters who shaped him take over his story. His domineering mother earned the nickname "mouth and trousers" from relatives who couldn't stand her. Her lover, Dr Leonard Cottie, wrote a mind-numbing memoir called With Stethoscope and Scalpel. Peter's grandmother spent her days drinking beer, smoking, and reading trashy novels like The Fatal Cup of Cocoa by Ainslie Gritter. These odd personalities crowd out Peter's intended self-examination. What began as his attempt to understand his own inadequacies becomes a parade of the eccentric people who always overshadowed him. Peter discovers that even in his own confession, he remains a supporting player in other people's dramas.
Genres: literary-fiction, 20th-century, contemporary, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: unreliable-narrator
Period: 20th-century
192 pages · Hardcover · Jonathan Cape, Ltd