Will Self's update of Oscar Wilde's "Dorian Gray" seems to be hardly worth the effort as he seems to try and offend everyone by bringing it into the age of AIDS. To his credit, he faced an overwhelming task in updating this story and managed to handle it. It was not that difficult, for the plot was already there, he just needed to make a few twists in the story to place his name on it. Is it worth reading? You'll have to be the judge. Personally I wanted to stop reading after the first 100 pages, but in all fairness to the author, and hoping to better understand his take on this story, I struggled through to the end. Later I wondered why I bothered. The writing is laced with endless metaphors and similes, and I believe it's Self's stylish well-mannered wordplay that can turn the reader off and want to head straight to the dentist for a root canal, which is less painful.

In this story, Dorian is a young gay man in 1981 London who meets older gentlemen that include Henry Wotton and the artist Basil Hallward. Hallward produces a nine channel video of gorgeous Dorian, who he has fallen in love with, and captures the youthful beauty of Dorian forever, so he thinks. Dorian ends up aging only on tape, while in real life he stays handsome and young, but shows a mean streak as he goes around infecting everyone he meets with HIV. It all sounds too familiar, like "Patient Zero" from Randy Shilts book, "And the Band Played On". The books final pages contain a real surprise ending, but this didn't change my view of the book. It does seem like no one in this book escapes from Self's dislike of homosexuality, including most gay artists, and his blaming the plague on the sexual habits of gay men. This sounds familiar too, but we usually hear it only from the right side of the fence.

There are a lot of problems with this story. The characters are boring, drug-induced, self-hating individuals who seem to have no redeeming qualities. Who could possibly want to know people like this? Dorian is supposed to be an overwhelming beauty that all these men are infatuated with, but instead Self gives us a Dorian who lacks any beauty, charm, emotion, or attractiveness. It's all totally boring! I had great hopes that this would be an exciting, emotional re-telling of a great piece of fiction that might compare a little to the original by Oscar Wilde, but that didn't happen. I could go on, but enough has been said. What a disappointment! Dorian should have never been transported to the 80's, that's for sure!

Joe Hanssen

I was surprised to find that this book was published in 2001. Much of it seems so dated: the glorification of the NY meat packing district, where sexual activity enters the realm of surgery, as the epitome of sinful evil; the false heroics of AIDS deaths; drug habits as proof of living on the wild side - I thought we had moved beyond all that, and much of it struck me as vaguely ludicrous rather than shocking or hair-raising.
Worse, the device of repeating Wilde's classic story in a modern setting invites continuous comparison with the original, which, not surprisingly, doesn't turn out well for Mr. Self. His Henry Wotton is a very pale shadow indeed of his ancestor, his self-conscious attempts at epigrammatic wit no match for the true brilliance of Wilde's example. It is his unveracious baroque style of expression rather than the content of his words that is hilarious - simply because it is ridiculous within the late 20th century context.
The inevitable gay-novel staple of hordes of men, including the author himself, drooling over a gorgeous boy is exploited at very, very tiresome lengths. All the more tiresome because Will Self gives us very little reason to feel the lure of Dorian; he is a thoroughly repulsive character, exuding non of the mystery or naiveté of the original. But then, all characters in this book are repulsive in one way or another. I'm glad they're fictional, because I wouldn't want to run the risk of meeting one of them in real life, ever! Only with the likes of Brett Easton Ellis will you find this kind of sustained cynicism and brutality - so possibly if you like his works, you may like this one. For me the complete lack of recognizable human emotion, the total absence of even a hint of warmth in any of the protagonists, rendered the book unreadable. An overwrought sex drive and a drug habit alone do not constitute interesting characters! I didn't finish it, actually, though the clue would have been clear to me long before the end even without one of my fellow reviewers in these pages giving it away: it is advertised with almost amateurish pride in a transparent lay-out dodge. For the benefit of those of you still wanting to read this book, I will not repeat the spoiler, even though, as may be clear, I sincerely doubt there is very much to spoil here.

Will Self's updated version of Oscar Wilde's "The Picture of Dorian Gray" inevitably invites comparison with the original, and I'm afraid I thought that it came a poor second best.

"Dorian" failed for me on several counts. Self (who at his best is an imaginative writer) just could not match Wilde's wit: for example, Wilde's Henry Wotton is a much more witty character than Self's.

Wilde's novel had a certain Gothic horror underpinned by a subtle homosexual sub-plot (the latter necessarily so given the time it was written). Self, however, had no real need to allude to the homosexuality of his characters. Indeed, it's out there in the open, coupled with horror created by descriptions of AIDS and a sort of "American Psycho" sub-plot. No subtlety here then - quite the reverse. I felt that Self couldn't tear himself away from these themes. The trouble is that they weigh down the whole book, becoming tedious for the reader (or at least this one). That's not to belittle the fact that AIDS has had and continues to have a devasting effect, but I felt at times that Self was doing little more than indulging what I suspect might have been a fascination with descriptions of casual gay sex, cruising, SM bars and AIDS wards. When mixed together, they do not of themselves constitute an interesting novel.

This might be because Self's chosen plot pandered to his favourite themes. Within the first 50 pages of "Dorian", the reader is in familiar Self territory: drug abuse and hospitals. I couldn't help getting the immediate feeling of "here we go again". I suppose that continued descriptions of drug abuse in Self's writing have just worn me down. I just don't find it in the least bit interesting any more. I much prefer Self's writing when he holds these obessions in check, and lets his imagination explore different subjects/themes. "Dorian" was, I'm afraid, inferior both to Wilde and to Self's other work.

G Rodgers

Should be titled: 203 OTHER BOOKS AND THINGS YOU CAN BUY FROM TYLER HICKS TO MAKE HIM RICH!

Save your money. This book is one nonstop commercial to try to get you to buy Mr. Hicks' MANY other books & products. He comes off as cold-hearted and just out to make a buck himself.

One or two tentative ideas hidden amongst 342 pages of adverts for more of his products. Every time I came across another "plug" for one of his "kits" or "handbooks", I believed less and less in what he had to say.
Sort of like the literary equivalent of the door-to-door insurance salesman!
If you could get past the adverts, then there is some value in the ideas and motivational messages.

Using a small font this pamphlet could be paraphrased in this amount of space. Definitely not what I had in mind. Did not include enough developed information, lacked substantive information.

Although The Truth Option has some intriguing notions regarding human motivation, it does not back up its opinion with facts. Some assertions are way out on the fringe including that one's health complaints are manifestations of one's mental state. An example is the idea that if you are blind you do not want to see. All in all I'd pass this one up.