From Publishers Weekly
Sex, lies, crushed dreams and slot machines are paramount in McGinniss's flashy, fast-moving debut. Chase is a struggling artist who couldn't hack NYU and moves back to Vegas, where he is reunited with his adolescent flame, Michele. After being fired from his teaching job for beating up a student, Chase plans to hook up with his girlfriend, Julia, in California, but instead spends his summer as a chauffeur for Michele's call-girl business. Michele has plans for herself (buying a house, getting an advanced degree in women's studies), but for the time being is running the call-girl service out of a suite in the Versailles Palace Hotel and Casino with her boyfriend, Bailey. Girls too young for the job, readily available cocaine, untrustworthy business partners, memories of a family tragedy and glammed-out Vegas goons make Chase's summer more stressful than he had hoped for as he attempts to finish a few paintings for a group gallery show. The novel is action-packed, though the character development—particularly with the women—is sometimes superficial. McGinniss (son of another Joe McGinnis you may have heard of) successfully gambles with the notion that whatever happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, but what does that mean for Chase and his plans to escape? (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Review
“A dead-of-night story surehandedly told in a pared-down, teeth-bared style reminiscent of Joan Didion.” –Janet Fitch, author of White Oleander
“[A] flashy, fast-moving debut . . . McGinniss successfully gambles with the notion that whatever happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.” —Publishers Weekly
“[A] brisk, bleak debut novel…McGinniss manages to whip the yearning and confusion of the woefully inarticulate Chase into dramatic, even gripping fare….The Delivery Man offers unflinching glimpses at mores in free fall….Searing…Memorable…Not for the faint of heart.” –Ed Park, The New York Times Book Review
“McGinniss offers a fresh take on the seamy side of Vegas by focusing on the wasted lives of burned-out teens hooked on drugs and money. Even CSI doesn’t dig this deep.” —Carol Memmott, USA Today
“It’s sex, drugs, and a slew of lost souls in this engrossing story of a twenty-five-year-old known only as Chase. An out-of-luck wannabe artist, he retreats to his hometown—that being Vegas, a downward spiral ensues, thanks to madams and more….Could The Delivery Man be this decade’s Less Than Zero?” –Marie Claire
“Grim, convincing, and compelling…McGinniss charts [his characters’] aimlessness with insight and dexterity. Dare I say it? The Delivery Man really delivers.” –Art Taylor, The Washington Post
“An insider’s guide to the dark underbelly of twenty-first-century Las Vegas, brimming with brand names, hard bodies, hard drugs, and heavy doses of sex and violence. If that’s all you’re looking for, The Delivery Man won’t disappoint….But once you finish it, you won’t be able to get it out of your mind….The Delivery Man is that rare first novel that could well become a classic.” –Peter Bloch, Penthouse
“The Delivery Man is balls-out scary….It’s a world where everyone’s too young and too high, and no one expects to live ‘til thirty….A fast-paced read [that] packs a wallop.” –Courtney Ferguson, Portland Mercury
“A novel of nonstop tension in a landscape so modern, so up to the minute, that you can set your watch by it.” —Craig Nova
“A gripping literary thriller and an auspicious debut.” —George Pelecanos
“Traveling through a Las Vegas no tourist ever sees, The Delivery Man vibrates with heat and fear, sex and heartbreak. This is a fast and terrifying novel—definitely not a ride for the squeamish.” —Jill Eisenstadt, author of From Rockaway
“The Delivery Man is a brutally clear-eyed and beautifully built story that shines a light on Las Vegas’ dark underbelly. In its unforgettable characters, its unflinching examination of a piece of America most of us would like to pretend does not exist, and its probing of the darkest urges of the human psyche, this novel has all the force and authority of top-shelf fiction, and marks the arrival of an important new voice on the American literary scene.” —Roland Merullo, author of In Revere, in Those Days and A Little Love Story
“A brutal portrait of today’s lost generation.” —Publishers Weekly
“Poor Chase: he feels like God’s Lonely Man, all longing and disillusionment, and no one disappoints him more than he disappoints himself. He’s part of a longstanding American tradition of hard guys with soft centers, guys with an exquisitely calibrated sense of their own self-degradation, like one of Bret Easton Ellis’s heroes refracted through Raymond Chandler. The Delivery Man is arresting on the way, in the face of our undoing, we’re inadequate but still culpable, and idealistic but still paralyzed.” —Jim Shepard, author of Love and Hydrogen and Project X
“This is a thrilling debut—a novel about youth wasting itself knowingly against the laid-back, glossy, trademark amorality of Las Vegas, told in a voice that sounds like that of a slightly older, hipper Holden Caulfield, coming of age in a place which has no past or future—only the cool, gleaming, terrifying present. Sexy, touching, always shrewdly observed, and with a killer ending, The Delivery Man is the Less Than Zero of the early 2000s—and the first step in what I am sure will be a remarkable career.” —Michael Korda, author of Another Life and Charmed Lives
“McGinniss never wavers from his ruthless portrayal of the morally bankrupt . . . this atmospheric page-turner gains increasing depth as it barrels toward a gut-wrenching conclusion.” —Booklist
“Impressive . . . What is most striking about this novel is McGinniss’s sense of place. He captures the bright bleakness of the Las Vegas beyond the Strip—the Las Vegas people actually have to live in—with an unpitying eye, a Las Vegas most of the characters loathe but seem incapable of leaving, like chips that can’t be cashed in.” —Robert Cremins, Houston Chronicle
“[A] flashy, fast-moving debut . . . McGinniss successfully gambles with the notion that whatever happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.” —Publishers Weekly
“[A] brisk, bleak debut novel…McGinniss manages to whip the yearning and confusion of the woefully inarticulate Chase into dramatic, even gripping fare….The Delivery Man offers unflinching glimpses at mores in free fall….Searing…Memorable…Not for the faint of heart.” –Ed Park, The New York Times Book Review
“McGinniss offers a fresh take on the seamy side of Vegas by focusing on the wasted lives of burned-out teens hooked on drugs and money. Even CSI doesn’t dig this deep.” —Carol Memmott, USA Today
“It’s sex, drugs, and a slew of lost souls in this engrossing story of a twenty-five-year-old known only as Chase. An out-of-luck wannabe artist, he retreats to his hometown—that being Vegas, a downward spiral ensues, thanks to madams and more….Could The Delivery Man be this decade’s Less Than Zero?” –Marie Claire
“Grim, convincing, and compelling…McGinniss charts [his characters’] aimlessness with insight and dexterity. Dare I say it? The Delivery Man really delivers.” –Art Taylor, The Washington Post
“An insider’s guide to the dark underbelly of twenty-first-century Las Vegas, brimming with brand names, hard bodies, hard drugs, and heavy doses of sex and violence. If that’s all you’re looking for, The Delivery Man won’t disappoint….But once you finish it, you won’t be able to get it out of your mind….The Delivery Man is that rare first novel that could well become a classic.” –Peter Bloch, Penthouse
“The Delivery Man is balls-out scary….It’s a world where everyone’s too young and too high, and no one expects to live ‘til thirty….A fast-paced read [that] packs a wallop.” –Courtney Ferguson, Portland Mercury
“A novel of nonstop tension in a landscape so modern, so up to the minute, that you can set your watch by it.” —Craig Nova
“A gripping literary thriller and an auspicious debut.” —George Pelecanos
“Traveling through a Las Vegas no tourist ever sees, The Delivery Man vibrates with heat and fear, sex and heartbreak. This is a fast and terrifying novel—definitely not a ride for the squeamish.” —Jill Eisenstadt, author of From Rockaway
“The Delivery Man is a brutally clear-eyed and beautifully built story that shines a light on Las Vegas’ dark underbelly. In its unforgettable characters, its unflinching examination of a piece of America most of us would like to pretend does not exist, and its probing of the darkest urges of the human psyche, this novel has all the force and authority of top-shelf fiction, and marks the arrival of an important new voice on the American literary scene.” —Roland Merullo, author of In Revere, in Those Days and A Little Love Story
“A brutal portrait of today’s lost generation.” —Publishers Weekly
“Poor Chase: he feels like God’s Lonely Man, all longing and disillusionment, and no one disappoints him more than he disappoints himself. He’s part of a longstanding American tradition of hard guys with soft centers, guys with an exquisitely calibrated sense of their own self-degradation, like one of Bret Easton Ellis’s heroes refracted through Raymond Chandler. The Delivery Man is arresting on the way, in the face of our undoing, we’re inadequate but still culpable, and idealistic but still paralyzed.” —Jim Shepard, author of Love and Hydrogen and Project X
“This is a thrilling debut—a novel about youth wasting itself knowingly against the laid-back, glossy, trademark amorality of Las Vegas, told in a voice that sounds like that of a slightly older, hipper Holden Caulfield, coming of age in a place which has no past or future—only the cool, gleaming, terrifying present. Sexy, touching, always shrewdly observed, and with a killer ending, The Delivery Man is the Less Than Zero of the early 2000s—and the first step in what I am sure will be a remarkable career.” —Michael Korda, author of Another Life and Charmed Lives
“McGinniss never wavers from his ruthless portrayal of the morally bankrupt . . . this atmospheric page-turner gains increasing depth as it barrels toward a gut-wrenching conclusion.” —Booklist
“Impressive . . . What is most striking about this novel is McGinniss’s sense of place. He captures the bright bleakness of the Las Vegas beyond the Strip—the Las Vegas people actually have to live in—with an unpitying eye, a Las Vegas most of the characters loathe but seem incapable of leaving, like chips that can’t be cashed in.” —Robert Cremins, Houston Chronicle
