Death Kit

New to Penguin Modern Classics for this classic, dark novel

First published in 1967, Death Kit is a classic of modern fiction. Blending realism and dream, Susan Sontag’s second novel offers a passionate exploration of the recesses of the American conscience.

The novel is a narrative of the suffering of Dalton ‘Diddy’ Harron, told through his own observations. He works in advertising for a microscope manufacturer, is thirty-three and divorced and a month ago tried to commit suicide. The haphazard events of his life, including killing a railway worker and falling in love with a blind girl, are brought to us through the lens of Diddy’s own mind. We follow him through his journey to justify his actions and exorcise his inner demons, but we can see what is happening to Diddy only from inside his head, in the present, and the balance of his mind does not always bear close scrutiny.