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Book Cover for: They: A Sequence of Unease, Kay Dick

They: A Sequence of Unease

Kay Dick

Paperback
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A dark, dystopian portrait of artists struggling to resist violent suppression--"queer, English, a masterpiece." (Hilton Als)

Set amid the rolling hills and the sandy shingle beaches of coastal Sussex, this disquieting novel depicts an England in which bland conformity is the terrifying order of the day. Violent gangs roam the country destroying art and culture and brutalizing those who resist the purge. As the menacing "They" creep ever closer, a loosely connected band of dissidents attempt to evade the chilling mobs, but it's only a matter of time until their luck runs out.

Winner of the 1977 South-East Arts Literature Prize, Kay Dick's They is an uncanny and prescient vision of a world hostile to beauty, emotion, and the individual.

Book Details

  • Publisher: McNally Editions
  • Publish Date: Feb 1st, 2022
  • Pages: 128
  • Language: English
  • Edition: undefined - undefined
  • Dimensions: 8.40in - 5.00in - 0.40in - 0.45lb
  • EAN: 9781946022288
  • Categories: • Dystopian• Science Fiction - Apocalyptic & Post-Apocalyptic• Literary

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About the Author

Dick, Kay: - Kay Dick (1915-2001) was the first female director of an English publishing house, promoted to the role at the age of twenty-six and mixing with what she described "a louche set" that included Ivy Compton-Burnett, Stevie Smith, and Muriel Spark. From the 1940s through the '60s, she and her long-term partner, the novelist Kathleen Farrell, were at the heart of the London literary scene. She published seven novels, a study of the commedia dell'arte, and two volumes of literary interviews.
Scholes, Lucy: - Lucy Scholes is a critic who lives in London, and is an editor at McNally Editions.

What people are saying

Mentioner image for: Maxine Peake
Maxine Peake
@MPeakeOfficial
2 years

Actor/ Writer/occasional director and member of @the_E_R_C This is Maxine's official account. Agent Michael Duff at Maison Two.

Tickets on sale today!! THEY – Factory International https://t.co/IXsez7jBcf

twitter.com
Mentioner image for: Factory International
Factory International
@factoryintl
2 years

Inventing tomorrow together. New art and music – at Aviva Studios, online, across Manchester, around the world and at MIF.

The many faces of Maxine Peake. We've enjoyed a series of stirring performances from @MPeakeOfficial at MIF, each of them celebrating radical acts and artists. The latest chapter comes at #MIF23, amid the splendour of @TheJohnRylands. https://t.co/dUm3ivCyEe https://t.co/QvYoEeJysg

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Mentioner image for: Faber Books
Faber Books
@FaberBooks
2 years

Publishing independently since 1929.

Some very exciting news... Kay Dick's They is being adapted for stage by @MPeakeOfficial, Sarah Frankcom and @KnightImogen. They are coming – July 5-9 at Manchester's @TheJohnRylands 👀 https://t.co/23N0e6Imyr

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Critics’ reviews

Praise for this book

"Queer, English, a masterpiece."--Hilton Als
"They is spare, troubling, eerily familiar. It evokes Yoko Ogawa's Revenge, or Jacqueline Harpman's I Who Have Never Known Men, occupying a space between dystopia and horror. The lush landscapes are haunted by profoundly unsettling details about the forces at work--'It was no good listening for footsteps, ' the narrator tells us, 'they wore no shoes'--and all of it a backdrop for endless questions about art: What does it mean to create for no audience?"--Carmen Maria Machado "The Guardian"
"It's incredibly unusual to find a book this good that has been this profoundly forgotten."--Sam Knight "New Yorker"
"Both a dystopian fable and a stealth memoir . . . Like all robust allegories, They grants the reader the freedom to imagine any number of vivid referents for the opaque."--Melissa Anderson "Bookforum"
"A creepily prescient tale in which anonymous mobs target artists and destroy their art for the crime of individual vision. Insidiously horrifying!"--Margaret Atwood
"Dick's lush, transcendent nature writing contrasts with her spare, elliptical dialogue . . . [it's] a cri de coeur against urbanization . . . They is a study of fear. Its disconcerting power lies in its dream logic and elisions--the unexplained background, the offstage violence."--Madeleine Feeny "The Spectator"
"[A] stunningly effective dystopian nightmare . . . Could there be a more fitting moment for the revival of Dick's uneasy little masterpiece than our own era of isolation, fractious culture wars, widening intolerance, and environmental decline?"--David Wright "Library Journal (Starred Review)"
"[A] disquieting, lean, pared-back dystopian tale . . . One element that makes the book especially disturbing is that "they," whoever they are, are not a government-sanctioned group like Bradbury's firemen or Orwell's all-pervading government surveillance, but rather an unsanctioned multitude, the strength of which appears to lie not in official mandates, but rather in the swell of their ever-increasing numbers . . . It's chilling, but compellingly so."--Lucy Scholes "Paris Review"
"A tension of glinting malice pervades the narrator's episodic travels . . . here is a liberatory current of queer and nonmonogamous love and desire running counter to the increasingly stifling oppression enacted on the populace . . . Dick's dreamlike rendering of virulent conformity and a quotidian bloodthirsty anti-intellectualism still resonate. A timely reissue of English author Dick's slim dystopian fever dream."-- "Kirkus Reviews"
"Eerie, atmospheric . . . The faceless nature of the antagonists--whose philosophy, goals, and power structures are unspoken--runs counter to other mid-century dystopian tales and leaves space for interpretation . . . Dick creates a pervasive sense of dread for those who give their lives to art. This unsettling dreamlike endeavor is a worthy rediscovery."-- "Publishers Weekly"

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