All Ears: Cultural Criticism, Essays and Obituaries [Paperback]

Dennis Cooper (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 15, 1999

Dennis Cooper is author of six novels with Grove Press and a Contributing Editor at Spin. His novels are fantastic, brooding and violent.

As a journalist, he is solid and well-formed. He has an approachable informality, unawed by massive celebrity His straightforward interviews with Leonardo Di Caprio, Courtney Love, Keanu Reeves, and Bob Mould disarm their subjects to find an urgent, everyday humanity. The feature articles on AIDS, youth culture, and contemporary art take their subjects passionately. But the obituaries for Kurt Cobain, River Phoenix, and William Burroughs are as bracing as a stoic's evaluation of a dead god.

All Ears for the first time collects this major 20th-Century novelist's lesser-known work. It will also include several new unpublished piece. All Ears pours necessary critical insight onto the time's leading cultural luminaries.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Dennis Cooper is best known as the author of transgressive novels such as Guide and Try, but he's also done his share of journalism. All Ears collects work from a variety of publications, including a profile of Sonny Bono that originally appeared in George and pieces from Spin on former Hüsker Dü frontman Bob Mould and homeless HIV-positive youth in Los Angeles. Along the way, he asks Keanu Reeves if he's gay ("No ... but ya never know"), ponders the fascination with heroin among alternative bands from the early '90s, and meditates upon the deaths of River Phoenix, William S. Burroughs, and Kurt Cobain. All Ears is a slim but compelling volume that speaks to pop culture with probing intensity and authenticity.

Product Details

• Paperback: 146 pages
• Publisher: Soft Skull Press (April 15, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1887128336
• ISBN-13: 978-1887128339
• Product Dimensions: 7.3 x 5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #878,010 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars cultural snapshot, November 10, 2002

By 

R. Abraham "unf unf unf" (Syosset, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: All Ears: Cultural Criticism, Essays and Obituaries (Paperback)

For those looking for vintage Cooper, you should be warned that nothing in this book is indicitive of Cooper's usual writing style, or any of the writerly idiosynchrasies that have given him cult celebrity. But that's only because it's a compilation of articles that Cooper did over the years for Rolling Stone, Interview, and other magazines. At best, this book is a cultural pastiche of a time that's slowly fading from the tips of our memories; the period of the late 80s/early 90's in which ennui, AIDS, and a new sort of decadance were laying the groundwork for the rest of the decade. Articles about the death of River Pheonix and Kurt Kobain, interviews with Courtney Love and Keanu Reaves,a rather scathing article about the death of William Burroughs,(the opinions in which I politely disagree)and Cooper's opiniated voice color this compilation with a sort of bleak, but humanistic worldview. Anyway, it's all worth it for an interview with Keanu Reaves (Pre-Speed) in which Cooper gets the then cult figure to talk about drugs he'd like to use...