When Kate arrives at Heathrow airport, her best friend Jake convinces her to go clubbing with him. And so starts her journey into London's clubbing subculture with Jake as her guide. The novel is structured around Kate's exposure to the ethos of the different clubs she visits. The narration is propelled by the tension set up between the potentially salacious material these experiences provide and the 'flat' account given of it by the narrator. Kate's reserved perspective plays off against the usual expectations one has of the 'confessional' mode. This becomes particularly telling as she recounts Jake's spinning off into increasingly destructive patterns. The reader is left to deal with the cycle of spectacle and experience presented in the work on his or her own terms. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2003.