Chicken

When Parnell Wilde, a once famous actor who has hit the skids, meets Annabel Wrath, a young YouTuber with a cult following, we know we're going to be taken on a wild ride but one with beautiful language because Lynn Crosbie has a way with words. As a breathtakingly beautiful young man Parnell starred in Ultraviolence, a violent Kubrickesque film. It looked like he was going places but he did not handle fame well and when the novel begins he is a broken old man living in squalor, barely able to muster the strength to order cheap booze and smokes. He is sick, he is world-weary and he is reduced to playing the Chickman Chicken mascot in a chicken breast commercial for chump change. Annabel wanted to meet him so she bribed his landlord to let her into his apartment. She is obsessed with Ultraviolence and has a plan to fix Parnell and make a sequel. They embark on a ruinous, bruising sexual adventure which Annabel documents in sordid detail for her fans. Crosbie is fearless and hellishly witty. Chicken is a dark book wrapped in silky, luxuriant prose. When I finished it I had a weird feeling in my gut and had to give my head a good shake.