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NOTHING SPECIAL

by Nicole Flattery (Bloomsbury £16.99, 240pp)

In 1960s new york, Mae drops out of school to become a secretary in andy Warhol’s studio. She is befriended by Shelley, another typist, who involves her in transcribing the tapes recorded for use in Warhol’s novel.

as time passes, she becomes obsessed with the characters speaking on the tapes, and realises ‘being ordinary was a torment’. as a result, the parties she goes to, the things with which she gets embroiled, all have an edge of danger.

Sixties new york is vividly conveyed, but the triumph is in the capture of moody, prickly, ambitious Mae through whose eyes everything is seen. The curiously opaque but accomplished prose puts a sometimes frustrating distance between the reader and the action in this otherwise witty and unique coming-of-age novel.

BOOKS FICTION

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2023-03-24T07:00:00.0000000Z

2023-03-24T07:00:00.0000000Z

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