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Design Faults in the Volvo 760 Turbo
Often characterised as the bad boy of English literature, Will Self has earned his reputation through a body of innovative, experimental and to some upsetting work. All his fiction is available in Penguin editions and the two stories in this collection illustrate Self's gift for finding the extraordinary, the surreal and the downright absurd amidst the mundanities of modern life.
- Design Faults in the Volvo 760 Turbo
- A Story for Europe
- Design Faults in the Volvo 760 Turbo
- A Story for Europe
55 pages, Paperback
First published May 6, 2005
97 people want to read
About the author
Will Self
171 books989 followersWilliam Self is an English novelist, reviewer and columnist. He received his education at University College School, Christ's College Finchley, and Exeter College, Oxford. He was married to the late journalist Deborah Orr.
Self is known for his satirical, grotesque and fantastic novels and short stories set in seemingly parallel universes.
Self is known for his satirical, grotesque and fantastic novels and short stories set in seemingly parallel universes.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
January 5, 2019
The only reason I gave this book one star, is that there is no lower rating. The first story was so offputting, that I did not get past ten pages. The fact that this was already a fifth of the book did not encourage me to grin and bear it and see out the remainder. I felt as if I were reading an eulogy to Will Self's mastery of the English language. Only this mastery felt more like a curse, each sentence a painful struggle towards the next one.
The second story was immensely better, but then this is hardly an achievement. I found the mention of the town Potsdam interesting. This is about as far as I can go to praise it.
I felt so cheated by my bus journey to work that I almost asked the bus driver to turn around and drive me back home, so I could try again with a different book.
S Pearce, author of Mo
The second story was immensely better, but then this is hardly an achievement. I found the mention of the town Potsdam interesting. This is about as far as I can go to praise it.
I felt so cheated by my bus journey to work that I almost asked the bus driver to turn around and drive me back home, so I could try again with a different book.
S Pearce, author of Mo
May 2, 2011
One of the good introductions to Will Self’s often decidedly satirical style is Design Faults in the Volvo 760 Turbo, a super-slim book containing two of his short stories. In the story from which the book’s title is derived, Design Faults in the Volvo 760 Turbo: A Manual, Self welcomes us to “the terrifyingly tiny world of the urban adulterer” as experienced by Bill Bywater, an unfaithful husband and a somewhat dissatisfied owner of a unit of the titular car model. In the second story, A Story for Europe, Self gives us alternating accounts of selected days in the opposite but interlinked lives of Humpy, a two-year old toddler from London, and Herr Doktor Zweijärig, a 61-year old German businessman. In both stories, Self demonstrates his distinctive humor and mordant wit.
The pairing of these stories, in a book that is just one of the 70 special-edition Pocket Penguins published in celebration of Penguin’s 70th anniversary, may seem arbitrary at first, what with their disparate themes and characters. But reading one after the other uncovers the connective tissue that binds the two tales together: a pronouncement of the potency of words, the power of language itself.
It is evident in A Story for Europe, where precocious Humpy develops his own German-sounding gibberish while old Zweijärig loses his grasp on the German language and acquires an impulse for baby talk, where the former, taking possession of his spherical playthings, has “his fist closed tightly around his marbles” while the latter, worrying about his sanity, asks, “What is this — am I really losing my marbles?” It pervades the jagged but Ballardian narrative of Design Faults, which Self uses as a platform to indulge himself in fast and furious wordplay. The story abounds in puns, usually involving the shortcomings Bill finds in the architecture of his automobile and the anatomy of his adulteress, and takes a particularly hilarious turn when Bill attempts to overcome his guilt by pulling a Freud on himself, trying to get rid of his infidelity by eradicating from the car manual every instance of the word ‘Volvo,’ which in his mind is nothing if not the synonym of ‘vulva.’
Self is best pals with none other than Martin Amis, English literature’s incumbent enfant terrible, and is frequently in the same room as Christopher Hitchens, the outspoken feather ruffler of God is Not Great and Why Women Aren’t Funny fame (or infamy). If the company he keeps is any indication, Self is indeed, as many an observer has called him, a bad boy. But he has in common with his two buddies, beyond their similar labels of notoriety, a more agreeable epithet: a good, if not terribly great, writer. Arguably the least famous and the least acclaimed among the three, he is nonetheless a skilled enough writer to be taken seriously, even if the way he writes about the variety of topics he chooses is on the surface anything but serious. Reader, beware: In Design Faults in the Volvo 760 Turbo, he writes about adultery and aging with an unapologetic authorial tone that is rarely, if ever, associated with either subject. He is one reckless driver.
—
Originall posted on Fully Booked .Me.
The pairing of these stories, in a book that is just one of the 70 special-edition Pocket Penguins published in celebration of Penguin’s 70th anniversary, may seem arbitrary at first, what with their disparate themes and characters. But reading one after the other uncovers the connective tissue that binds the two tales together: a pronouncement of the potency of words, the power of language itself.
It is evident in A Story for Europe, where precocious Humpy develops his own German-sounding gibberish while old Zweijärig loses his grasp on the German language and acquires an impulse for baby talk, where the former, taking possession of his spherical playthings, has “his fist closed tightly around his marbles” while the latter, worrying about his sanity, asks, “What is this — am I really losing my marbles?” It pervades the jagged but Ballardian narrative of Design Faults, which Self uses as a platform to indulge himself in fast and furious wordplay. The story abounds in puns, usually involving the shortcomings Bill finds in the architecture of his automobile and the anatomy of his adulteress, and takes a particularly hilarious turn when Bill attempts to overcome his guilt by pulling a Freud on himself, trying to get rid of his infidelity by eradicating from the car manual every instance of the word ‘Volvo,’ which in his mind is nothing if not the synonym of ‘vulva.’
Self is best pals with none other than Martin Amis, English literature’s incumbent enfant terrible, and is frequently in the same room as Christopher Hitchens, the outspoken feather ruffler of God is Not Great and Why Women Aren’t Funny fame (or infamy). If the company he keeps is any indication, Self is indeed, as many an observer has called him, a bad boy. But he has in common with his two buddies, beyond their similar labels of notoriety, a more agreeable epithet: a good, if not terribly great, writer. Arguably the least famous and the least acclaimed among the three, he is nonetheless a skilled enough writer to be taken seriously, even if the way he writes about the variety of topics he chooses is on the surface anything but serious. Reader, beware: In Design Faults in the Volvo 760 Turbo, he writes about adultery and aging with an unapologetic authorial tone that is rarely, if ever, associated with either subject. He is one reckless driver.
—
Originall posted on Fully Booked .Me.
April 28, 2025
Andra novellen, a story for europe, var helt okej men förmodligen bara för att jag fick chans att fantisera om att vara en fantastisk psykolog. Så töntigt språk.
May 3, 2018
Hmmm. This was the first Will Self I've read and I didn't get it.
The blurb recommends these two short stories for their 'surreal and downright absurd' take on the 'mundanities of modern life', and that's fine if you are okay with that genre. I guess I'm not. The first seemed to me just an excuse to write about sex, which I think it did well enough and amusingly, but I had no idea if I was in the mind of the protagonist or in his fantasies or both or neither. The second seemed to be about a trans-national and inter-generational personal development exchange: and if that sounds bizarre, it was.
If greater meaning was being presented in the guise of the absurdity, then I was bemused enough by the stories at a literal level not to get it or want to bother to try to get it. When I was a teacher, I'd have had to, but now I'm retired I don't; so I'm conscious that I should in fairness probably apologise to Mr Self for not spending enough time on these pieces.
I enjoyed the style, but not concept, I guess.
The blurb recommends these two short stories for their 'surreal and downright absurd' take on the 'mundanities of modern life', and that's fine if you are okay with that genre. I guess I'm not. The first seemed to me just an excuse to write about sex, which I think it did well enough and amusingly, but I had no idea if I was in the mind of the protagonist or in his fantasies or both or neither. The second seemed to be about a trans-national and inter-generational personal development exchange: and if that sounds bizarre, it was.
If greater meaning was being presented in the guise of the absurdity, then I was bemused enough by the stories at a literal level not to get it or want to bother to try to get it. When I was a teacher, I'd have had to, but now I'm retired I don't; so I'm conscious that I should in fairness probably apologise to Mr Self for not spending enough time on these pieces.
I enjoyed the style, but not concept, I guess.
February 26, 2022
With Will Self, it would appear that you either love his humour, or you dislike it.
I Love It.
Another Penguin short that is excellent.
Two tales, one about a wife switch, one a mind switch. Connected but not connected.
Absolutely brilliant!
I Love It.
Another Penguin short that is excellent.
Two tales, one about a wife switch, one a mind switch. Connected but not connected.
Absolutely brilliant!
January 3, 2021
A tiny fraction of "Tough, Tough Toys for Tough, Tough Boys", which makes this both good and a complete waste of time, regurgitating previous glories for the naive purchaser.
July 20, 2021
Just a quick read and an interesting style.
June 4, 2024
enjoyed the second story a lot more than the first, a toddler speaking business german!
March 14, 2023
the second story redeemed this - but i still wouldn’t call it good
November 28, 2008
Not great, but amongst my favorite short stories all the same. Ask me about ill conceived, absurdist make out out sessions!
December 4, 2012
Two great little stories.
December 16, 2012
Hot and steamy book.
March 19, 2013
Bad puns. Corny ending. And a World Cup qualifier used as a plot point which can't possibly include a penalty shoot-out, but does here.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews