Well What Was All That in Aid Of?

I just read Black Bag by Luke Kennard. It is funny and good. Don’t let its Booker nomination put you off. Just give your hands a good wash after reading it and you’ll be fine. The book’s about an actor who must wear a black leather bag over his whole body (except for his feet) after precariat desperation leads him to take work as the subject of a psychological experiment. Anyway, these quotes aren’t particularly representative of the book, but they’re nice as Escapological moments: About a job (but not the black bag one): I don’t want to do this forever … Too many people feel like they own a little bit of me — it’s like I accidentally sold 500 per cent of the shares in my soul. And I’m getting deeply sick of people and their bullshit. It’s not a good feeling. And a retired man speaks: Retirement feels rather like being expelled from a cult … Everything you measured your life by is proved to be utterly senseless and haphazard. You went along with a set of precepts because you had…