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Part novel, part Pop artwork, Andy Warhol’s a is an electrifying slice of life at his Factory studio

‘A work of genius’ Newsweek

In the early 1960s, Andy Warhol set out to turn the novel into pop art. a, the first book he wrote, is the result. Transcribed from audiotapes recorded in and around his legendary art studio, it begins with the actor Ondine popping pills, then follows a cast of thinly-disguised superstars, musicians and prima donnas as they run riot through Manhattan. A knowing response to James Joyce’s Ulysses, using the freewheeling, spontaneous techniques as Warhol’s visual art, this filthy, funny book is a uniquely creative insight into Factory life.

‘Hellish hymns from Amphetamine Heaven, the vox populi of the Velvet Underground … These people are witty and they are grand, they do terrible things and make awful remarks’ New York Review of Books