Arnon Grunberg
Mail on Sunday,
1997-11-23
1997-11-23, Mail on Sunday

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Fiona Gray

Clever, bored and lonely teenager Arnon helps to look after his invalid father, then hangs out on the streets of Amsterdam. He dares himself to visit prostitutes - each encounter bleaker and more unlikely than the last.

Twenty-year-old Grunberg's first novel reads like autobiography - and has been compared to Portnoy's Complaint. Funny and full of self-loathing, it contains scenes of Ortonesque wit and Pinteresque awfulness. But most impressive are his bitter and unexpectedly touching sketches of Amsterdam's young working girls.