Fighting Fictions: The Novels of B. S. Johnson

Ten years ago, it could seem that B. S. Johnson had fallen into obscurity. Indeed, when the first edition of Fighting Fictions appeared in 2000, no other book on Johnson had been published. However, since then, B. S. Johnson has enjoyed something of a revival. Four books about him have appeared, including the biography Like A Fiery Elephant by Jonathan Coe. With the first edition of Fighting Fictions now sold out, Nicolas Tredell has taken the opportunity to update the opening chapter and the anti-conclusion and to make a range of amendments in other parts of the book. His study argues: "that the so-called 'experimental' aspects of Johnson's novels are as valuable as their realistic ones, sometimes more so, and that his work continues to pose major challenges for writers and readers in the twenty-first century. His novels are fighting fictions in two main senses: they contest conventional realism and, even more radically, they question whether fiction has any value at all." Fighting Fictions provides a profile of Johnson's life; an account of developments in English fiction in the 1950s and the 1960s; a summary of Johnson's views on the novel; and an outline of the critical assumptions and approaches of the study as a whole. It discusses each of Johnson's novels in turn and offers, in the form of an anti-conclusion, suggestions about his achievement and about possible future directions for critical exploration of his work.