Christie Malry’s Own Double-Entry

B.S. Johnson

Christie Malry’s Own Double-Entry is very funny, and studded with amusing metaphysical self-consciousness.

James Wood

Christie Malry’s Own Double-Entry

Fiction by B.S. Johnson

In a brief but productive career, B.S. Johnson (1933-73) was recognized as the most original of the English experimental writers of his generation. Combining a bellicose avant-gardism with pointed social concerns, he won the praise of critics and fellow writers as well as a readership not usually gained by a literary maverick. Christie Malry’s Own Double-Entry is Johnson’s most broadly humorous book, though as readers will discover, his humor has a bite. Christie is a simple man. His job in a bank puts him next to but not in possession of money. He encounters the principles of Double-Entry Bookkeeping and adapts them in his own dramatic fashion to settle his account with society. Under the column headed “Aggravation” for offenses received from society (the unpleasantness of the bank manager is the first on an ever-growing list), debit Christie; under “Recompense,” for offenses given back (scratching the façade of an office block), credit Christie. All accounts are to be settled in full, and they are — in the most alarming way.

Buy Christie Malry’s Own Double-Entry

Paperback(published May, 01 1987)

ISBN
9780811209540
Price US
13.95

Clothbound(published May, 01 1987)

ISBN
9780811209533
Portrait of B.S. Johnson

B.S. Johnson

B.S. Johnson was an English experimental novelist, poet, and critic.

Christie Malry’s Own Double-Entry is very funny, and studded with amusing metaphysical self-consciousness.

James Wood

I think very highly of B.S. Johnson, all of whose works I have read. He’s the only British author with the guts to reassess the novel form, extend its scope and still work in a recognisable fictional tradition… The future of the novel depends on people like B.S. Johnson.

Anthony Burgess