Who knows what the Happy Hooker would have made of this pessimistic punter, a Jewish 22-year-old from Amsterdam whose first novel is a dossier of disaffection and disappointing sex. Arnon's alienation at home is understandable, with a mother who boasts of having been 'the belle of the ball' in Mauthausen concentration camp, 'even without my hair'. His father's bonkers in a better way but eventually so diminished by disability that his son can't bear to sit around spooning puree into his twisted mouth for a moment longer.
Arnon escapes this and the usual teenage classroom ennui by hanging out on streets and in bars with first love Rosie. Rosie demonstrates her boredom threshold is lower than his by leaving him soon after they've traded virginities. Bereft, yet burning with the fever of the recently deflowered, he visits his first prostitute and gets addicted to vice girls 'as an alcoholic thirsts for his next glass before the glass in front of him is empty'. Finally, debts force him to sign up with his own pimp.
Written as a dare, 'Blue Mondays' has already sold squillions in Europe. The English translation has its inevitable