The Octopus Man
JASPER GIBSON
(WEIDENFELD & NICOLSON, 368 PP, £14.99)
Tablet bookshop price £13.49 • tel 020 7799 4064
Jasper Gibson’s second novel is an extraordinarily lively and intensely imagined tale of a schizophrenic man battling to find a way to live without being sledgehammered by antipsychotic sedatives. The first-person narrative cackles with inventive phrases and humour, especially at desperate moments.
For 19 years, Tom, formerly a brilliant law student, has been hearing the voice of Malamock, the Octopus God, who is training him to “be a Transmigrant. To wake up from myself.” Drink, drugs, meat, sex and – especially – disloyalty are off the menu; Malamock punishes transgressions with massive internal shocks.
