Service

'John Tottenham writes with a rare comic intensity' Colm Tóibín 'My favourite nihilistic romantic' Rachel Kushner What's this book about? Is there a restroom? Do you have gluten-free bagels? Do you work here? Do you have a restroom? Do I buy books or rent books or what? The worst thing about a bookshop is the customers. Then there's the gift-wrapping, the invoicing, the stock takes. The Yelp reviews that inevitably contribute to self-loathing. In his late forties, Sean is still a frustrated bookseller who should have written his novel already. Instead, he spends his days drowning in his overwhelming sense of contempt -for LA, for its readers, for its casual disdain for service. And what, or whom, is he serving anyway? Biting, hilarious and self-aware, John Tottenham's debut novel is a razor-sharp dissection of the modern scourges of gentrification, male vanity, jealousy and the worth of literature in a digital age.

About the Author :
John Tottenham is the author of four volumes of poetry: The Inertia Variations (2004 & 2010), Antiepithalamia & Other Poems of Regret and Resentment (2012), The Hate Poems (2018), and Fresh Failure (2023). His long-standing column in Artillery is widely read, and his paintings and drawings have been exhibited in solo shows at galleries in Los Angeles and New York. Service is his first novel.

Review :
'So heartfelt that we find ourselves howling with laughter because, despite his best efforts, John Tottenham writes with a rare comic intensity and re-creates himself in the guise of an unforgettable character in fiction' - Colm Tóibín 'The weariest bohemian, with a Keatsian death-drive he somehow keeps outliving, John Tottenham is my favourite nihilistic romantic' - Rachel Kushner, Booker-shortlisted author of Creation Lake 'Hilarious, refreshingly mean-spirited and often brilliant' - Washington Post 'A post-punk Byron ... Service looks like a blow but is a prayer' - Constance Debré, award-winning author of Love Me Tender