Book review: Will, by Will Self

Addiction to drugs or alcohol is hell, but it is also strangely gratifying. Nobody is as self-important as the addict because nobody and nothing else matter as much as feeding his habit. Nobody else’s life, it seems to him, is as full of drama. The Consul in Malcolm Lowry’s alcoholic masterpiece, Under The Volcano complained that nobody understood the importance of a drunkard’s life; nobody else saw the world as so magical. For others of course the addict’s life is painful to observe – particularly so for those who have loved him, and still often amazingly continue to do so, even while the addict himself becomes a crushing bore.