Shuttling restlessly across the Atlantic, dissolute film producer John Self's chaotic progress is fuelled by his bottomless appetite for excess, little expecting that his wild life is about to spin dangerously out of control. Inspired by his unhappy early experience as a screenwriter, Martin Amis' uninhibited comedy brilliantly satirized the irresponsible consumerism its time and still delights with its inventive plotting, formal brilliance and verbal pyrotechnics. _RPJ_