THE QUANTITY THEORY OF MORALITY

A black satire of bad behavior, assessed from a host of angles.

This novel, a sequel of sorts to Self’s debut short story collection, The Quantity Theory of Insanity (1995), concerns three British couples and a variety of hangers-on as they reckon with cheating, aging, and illness. In most of the chapters, the narrative frame remains the same: A party, a discussion of a woman’s double mastectomy, a collective trip to Italy that leads to a friend’s humiliation, news of another friend’s death—all of it observed glibly by a writer, Will, a clear stand-in for Self. But the details and perspective on the story shift in each chapter, at times to absurd extremes: In one version, all the characters are women (Will becomes Willa), in another, all are men (with heights and penis lengths given in precise detail). One of the longest chapters marks the return of Dr. Zack Busner, a psychiatrist who’s had a recurring role in Self’s work. Here he details the theory of the book’s title, which argues that measuring an affinity group’s moral backbone (or lack thereof) can predict the survival (or collapse) of a friend group, or the whole of British society. This being Self—who throughout his career has taken the bleakest lessons from the likes of J.G. Ballard and Martin Amis—the prognosis isn’t good. He’s skeptical of any effort to sort humanity into categories, lamenting how “time—and in most cases corruption—smooths their personalities into stereotypy, erodes their morals and leaves them as self-indulgent placemen and women of some sort or other.” But his eye for human foibles and their consequences are sharp, especially when he turns his focus on antisemitism, stoked in part by a particularly rapacious AI. For those who can stomach the bitter aftertaste, it’s strong stuff.

A deliberately messy but potent feat of provocation.