Any Old Iron

Random, New York, 1989. First hardcover edition. Condition: Near fine in near fine dust jacket. Slight edge nicks. 2nd printing.

From the publisher: There is no other writer like him, says Gore Vidal of Anthony Burgess, and there is no other novel like Any Old Iron - his first major novel since the publication of Earthly Powers in 1980. Wildly original, in the celebrated Burgess tradition, Any Old Iron is a broad, multilayered historical portrait of our cataclysmic century from the sinking of the Titanic through the Russian Revolution and the two world wars to the creation of the state of Israel. Throughout these chaotic times, the destinies of two very different families, one Welsh, one Jewish, are bound together by an unusual marriage, an unrequited love, and a strange but solid friendship. Any Old Iron is a story of survival in the unfittest of worlds. But beneath this story lies another: the vivid revival of an ancient Celtic legend (the title is a clue) richly woven into the intricate fabric of modern times, which provides a haunting mythic dimension to this brilliantly innovative and, at times, highly comic novel. Anthony Burgess, author of A Clockwork Orange, the Enderby series, and Little Wilson, Big God, among his numerous works of fiction and nonfiction, is one of the world s most admired writers. Any Old Iron, a major achievement in his long and distinguished career, provides further evidence of Mr. Burgess' extraordinary talents.