Exit Through the Wound

by North Morgan

Maine Hudson has a high tolerance for pharmaceuticals and a low tolerance for everything and everyone else. This includes his Greek parents, who bankroll his glorious isolation in London. This includes his career as a consultant, his clients, his boss, the majority of his colleagues and people he sees on the way to work. This includes the dumb model boyfriend of the American girl that he has decided to fall in love with. This includes her also. When Maine fails to obliterate himself through drug overdoses, the obsessive changing of his legal name and half-hearted thoughts of suicide, it falls to his central nervous system to pick up the challenge of trying to kill him off. Can Maine survive with his lack of values intact?

Genres: Fiction

First published September 1, 2011

Reviews

[Elisa Rolle]

It was not “easy” to read this novel mostly since, first I think the main character, Maine Hudson, is probably a little too much like the author, North Morgan, and therefore his troubling uncertainty of life feels too real, and second since I’m not sure that Maine will “exit through the wound” as the title states.

No, this is not a spoiler mostly due to the trick the author did, having the last chapter, 40, at the beginning of the novel. I firstly didn’t realize that and was almost thinking that chapter was the memoirs of some other character other than Maine, or maybe that of the same author, North. I was really convinced of that also since in that first/last chapter, the narrative voice is sexually “fluid”… meaning that his sexuality is not black and white, he is not gay or straight, but he is mostly navigating life (and sex) without frontier, and if a man wants to kiss him, the narrative voice will simple close the eyes and accept the kiss. Three or four chapters after I realized it was the same Maine on that first chapter (yes, I was a little slow), but the impression of being sexually “fluid” remained: Maine is in love (love is probably a too simple word to summarize what he feels for Sadie, but it’s the nearest in meaning) with Sadie, who is in a relationship with Guy, and so basically Maine shares Sadie with Guy, or maybe Sadie shares Maine with Guy.

Anyway this is not really a story centered on Maine’s relationship with Sadie or Guy; it’s more Maine’s journey through life, through the wound as the title suggests, and it’s really a painful journey (painful for Maine not for the reader). It’s a chronological recording of working days and weekends and how many drugs Maine has to take to allow him to go through all of them. Maine is not satisfied with his family, his job, his relationship… but this dissatisfaction is not something that is displayed with rage or rebellion, since Maine’s emotions are dumbed by all the drugs he is taking. Right today someone commented on the bio I posted of a gay celebrity of the past, Jacques d'Adelswärd-Fersen, who committed suicide on November 5, 1923, at 43 years old by cocaine and champagne; the comment was more or less, he had everything and wasted all of it. My reply was he was probably affected by the very common “mal du vivre”, an illness that usually falls upon the most sensitive souls. Maine Hudson is exactly the most likely man to be affected by such illness, I think that, deprived by the drugs, his soul would be too raw, exposed to the unforgiving world.

Now, don't assume that Maine is a poor soul, victim of everyone around him; Maine can be acid as vitriol, his interchange with friends and lovers are often based on how much you can attack someone else, some stranger who crosses their street (the fat girl in the swimming pool, the poor guy who chooses the wrong shirt...), but in a way, he is neither so lethal since mostly their victims are not aware of being the object of such attack. Again, I think this is a way for Maine to shelter himself, or maybe, noticing the flaws of someone else he will be able to ignore his owns.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1907536078/?...

[Francis]

Reading this is like watching Made in Chelsea if it were scripted by Bret Easton Ellis.

It has its nice moments, but it must be a very specific sort of reader who can care about the wangst of a character whose main fears are not being able to go to the gym once a day and having "less than £250,000 in my trust fund."

The novel somehow lacks the spark that made the blog (londonpreppy.blogspot.com) such a great read.

[Nathan Komosinski · Rating 5 out of 5]

I feel like this book is a great book when you’re at a stand still in life. You’re depressed, but not at the same time. You’re just going through the motions of life instead of living it.

[Jeremy · Rating 3 out of 5]

When are you supposed to have yourself figured out? Are you a wound that won’t heal? Exit Through the Wound by North Morgan is a book that gets the turmoil of presenting having everything yet feeling nothing. Maine Hudson is a Greek ex-pat living in London. He may not look Greek, with his pale features, or have a Greek name (he does, he's just changed it), and that's just how he wants it. Even though his rich parents pay for his flat and provide plentiful influx of cash, Maine works for a consultancy firm, a job that he quite hates actually. He mostly emails the two colleagues he likes there, and pretends to look busy. He's in a polyamorous relationship with Sadie, an American heiress, and Guy, a model, but he doesn't even like Guy all that much. He spends his time listening to music, going to the gym, and partying, consuming vast quantities of pharmaceuticals, which he catalogues for us quite regularly. It's no wonder he feels his life is empty. Morgan doesn't allow for Maine to become a completely unlikeable depressive nihilist by allowing some self-awareness to come through, for us to see the pain he's in. And when his pain becomes manifest, you can't but help to feel for him. Morgan writes in a style that allows the subtlest flickers of emotions to come through the shut off emotions. At times, it's breezy, funny, and painfully aware of how trying to find yourself is a long road that at times feels like it leads to nowhere. Which is why one has to exit through the wound.

[Simon P · Rating 3 out of 5]

Exit Through the Wound is a decent and well written office and modern urban-relationship procedural, blatantly and sometimes horrendously derivative of Brett Easton Ellis. The repeated chemical ingestion descriptions become tiresome, but the deliberately-loathsome characters are surprisingly bearable. Morgan writes fiction that is easy to ingest and like his over-prescribed sedatives leaves you pleasantly numb, and before you know it a few hours have passed. Good first effort, abrupt, unsatisfying ending, which is almost definitely the point.

[Helen Tozer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Exit Through the Wound is a first person account of a life which swings between the chaotic and the mundane. Maine Hudson (Alexandros Maine Giannopoulos to his mother) has eschewed his wealthy Greek parents for the bright lights of the British capital. His days are spent emailing friends and snorting sedatives in a central London business consultancy. North Morgan’s depiction of office life is both depressingly familiar and hilarious.

I loved the deadpan style of description. Maine has an outsider’s ability to identify and brutally exploit the idiosyncrasies of those around him. And yet, his frank admittance of his own failings stops him from appearing sanctimonious. Heavily influenced by Bret Easton Ellis, the distinct voice of North Morgan’s protagonist often echoes that of Patrick Bateman, of American Psycho fame. They’re both withdrawn, substance-dependant, vain, methodical and skilled at brutal character assassinations. Both authors favour a stream-of-consciousness style of narrative, allowing the reader an almost uncomfortable level of access to the narrator’s thoughts. But unlike Bateman, Maine’s vulnerability, comic ability and desire for affection makes him appear human, even likable.

Maine describes his free time with a similar mix of satire and methodical detail that makes the narrative resemble a diary. Luckily, his pithy style makes it a good read. Since his friendships are mainly superficial, his evenings seem to fluctuate between dull Friday nights in alone and chaotic Saturday nights out. In light of his drug addiction and state of health, I began to wonder if he was documenting his life in expectation of imminent death. As Maine admits, ‘this existence isn’t sustainable really, no one can survive it’. His self-destructive nature, dramatic tendencies and aversion to his family make it easy to picture him recording his last days with vindictive pleasure.

I thought the protagonist of Exit Through the Wound’s voice was distinct and entertaining, which kept me reading through passages I might not have otherwise enjoyed. After having been unable to finish American Psycho, I was initially put off by comparisons to Bret Easton Ellis. Luckily, despite the similarity in content, North Morgan’s style is lighter, funnier and ironic. Despite Maine’s depression and drug dependence, the tone of the novel still felt upbeat due to North Morgan’s ability to find poignancy and humour in the mundane, the ridiculous and the dismal. He’s an author I’ll be keeping an eye out for, and I’m already on the lookout for more Limehouse books.

[Scott Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this and found myself quite addicted to it by the end (addiction being an appropriate response!), even though nothing really happens in it.

It started off very self-consciously and had a quite distinct "English as a second language" flavour at the start which was a bit jarring, and there were some bad typos and incorrectly used words throughout the book (phased/fazed), but this could be because it's a fairly rough-and-ready independent publishing house that produced it and some things obviously slipped through editing. But it definitely gripped me and I loved the sense of corporate London and of music that he imbued it with, sections of it were genuinely hilarious.

I would say 3.5/5 stars... really assured and I loved the style, but some mild character inconsistency and also a bizarre lack of sexual detail given the explicit nature of everything else. I noticed he lifted some mini storylines directly from his blog, but there's no harm in that I guess. Even the best comedians continuously recycle their best material!

[Rhino75 · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this MUCH more entertaining - and a better read - than I expected. Sure, the style's derivative and nothing much happens but the author does a great job of making real characters out of very little (which I find admirable). Upside: Lots of black humour, particularly in the office banter/messaging/desperation and the Greek scenes. Dwnside: I didn't buy the Maine-Sadie-Guy "triangle" at all - it seems pretty obvious to me that Maine is her GBF. Overall, I liked it and would definitely read more North Morgan.

[Corey Zerna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book even tho the main characters were mostly unlikeable - a story about aimless rich kids in London was basically not much of a story, but enjoyable reading none the less

[Anil · Rating 1 out of 5]

A bad Bret Easton Ellis rip-off.

[Ralph Bardsley · Rating 5 out of 5]

LOVED this book. A fresh and smart look at life as a 20-something. Creative and vibrant voice.

[Abhishek · Rating 5 out of 5]

An intoxicating cocktail of downers and self-loathing. Couldn't put it down, but would never read it again.