The Fuck-Up [Paperback]

Arthur Nersesian (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1997

Fiction. "The charm and grit of Nersesian's voice is immediately enveloping , as the down-and-out but oddly up narrator of his terrific novel, THE FUCK UP, slinks through Alphabet City and guttural utterances of love" - The Village Voice.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Okay, the narrator really is a fuck-up. Barely employed as an usher at a Village cinema, he falls for a colleague who seems dewily innocent even as he continues dumping his dirty clothes on girlfriend Sarah's floor. Then all in one day he loses his job, his chance for new love, and Sarah herself and winds up sleeping on the coach of a friend who's probably even more of a fuck-up than he is. From here he moves swiftly through trying to score, trying to keep his job at a porno theater by pretending that he's gay, and somehow getting himself involved in a robbery. Nersesian, a former editor at a literary magazine called The Portable Lower East Side and an English instructor at a community college in the Bronx, writes briskly and acutely, with a good sense of detail. At least he's not a fuck-up. But this isn't exactly the "slice of gritty New York life" promised on the cover. Despite the narrator's many astonishing escapades, it's really kind of bland.ABarbara Hoffert, "Library Journal"
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Review

"The charm and grit of Nersesian's voice is immediately enveloping, as the down-and-out but oddly up narrator of his terrific novel, The Fuck-Up, slinks through Alphabet City and gutteral utterances of love." -- Village Voice

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 274 pages
• Publisher: Akashic Books; 3 edition (June 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1888451033
• ISBN-13: 978-1888451030
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (98 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,166,736 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Arthur Nersesian is the author of eight novels, including the best-selling The Fuck-Up (more than 100,000 copies sold), dogrun (MTV/Simon & Schuster), Manhattan Loverboy (Akashic), Suicide Casanova (Akashic), Chinese Takeout (HarperCollins), Unlubricated

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

64 of 67 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best!, September 27, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Fuck-Up (Paperback)

Nersesian's first novel is still his best. This book is a raw, madcap, sometimes goofy -- but always fun -- story of a perpetual screw-up who can't catch a break to save his life. Sound familiar? This novel also offers the best tour of downtown New York City since Richard Perez's The Losers' Club. Of all of Nersesian's books, I prefer this one the best. It's a hilarious diamond in the rough. I guarantee you'll be entertained. Also recommended: Dogrun, The Losers' Club by Richard Perez, Post Office by Charles Bukowski

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A quick and provocative read..., July 26, 2001

By 

b.eghan (Old Bridge, New Jersey) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Fuck-Up (Paperback)

For better or for worse, The Fuck-Up is the kind of novel that doesn't require too much attention or brain-power to absorb. Not far into the book, we get a good sense of what Arthur Nersesian's definition of a "fuck-up" is: the nameless, faceless [anti-]hero of this novel is a perennial loser whose portrait is painted against the backdrop of "normal" society where people have, and are able to keep, their jobs, significant others, and everything else that might mean anything to them. In his gritty and gut-wrenching text, Nersesian documents with disarming candor the ever downwardly spiraling series of events in the life of this everyman with whom we all willingly or unwillingly identify. If not, why did we even pick this book up in the first place?

The odd thing is that there is a certain level of frustration that comes with reading this book. This character walks away from opportunity, rebuffs advice, and almost always makes decisions contrary to those we would have made ourselves; yet at the same time, his observations -- which are almost never flattering to humanity -- are the same ones we would make. What is the commonality, then, between how we feel and how we live? Nersesian takes us through a world in which nearly nothing is as it seems. Kindness? Honesty? Strength? No way. In the process, the novel subsequently asks questions that are especially important to its targeted audience: Why does his observation of life seem so radically different from our own? Why is he so oddly up-spirited? Is his honesty refreshing or depressing? And perhaps most importantly, why should we even care about his story? We should care because this novel serves a dual purpose as both entertainment and a critical social commentary that probes the hows and whys behind human beings.

We've all heard about the typical "bad day." Nersesian asks us now, is there really any such thing as the "bad life"? The answer to that depends on why you're reading the novel to begin with. As the title might dictate, only certain types of readers would even pick this book up, let alone read it. It is quick and easy to read, very important in relation to this success-oriented society, and refreshing in its portrayal of this particular human being. He could feasibly be any one of us -- it's a sad but true fact. Ideally, this book would get three-and-a-half stars from me because of a ... ending, but on the whole, it is true, honest, and funny. And it certainly needs to be read.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Incredibly entertaining and thought-provoking., September 23, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Fuck-Up (Paperback)

This book is a must-read for anyone interested in contemporary urban literature. But buy the original edition on Akashic Books, available here at Amazon.com. The Akashic edition is the independent edition, and besides, it has great drawings for chapter headings which the MTV Books edition doesn't have (!)