Go Now [Paperback]

Richard Hell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 25, 1997

On the road with the Blank Generation, "Go Now" takes readers on a wild trip across the country and into the head of a down-on-his-luck punk musician. ""Go Now" is a vile, scabrous, unforgivable, and deserving of the widest possible audience".--William Gibson.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Drug-addicted punk-rocker Billy Mudd is commissioned in 1980-along with his French photographer girlfriend, Chrissa-to drive across country in a 1957 DeSoto looking for America. Things get off to an inauspicious start when Billy, in search of pot, seduces the receptionist at the first motel they stay at, but somehow he and Chrissa reconcile. When Billy's dope supply runs out in Reno, he drinks his way through withdrawal, but upon reaching Denver, he picks up a prearranged package of heroin and is stoned again. An afternoon of explosive sex with Chrissa in the New Mexico desert follows. The relationship fragments, however, and finally breaks down-about the same time as the DeSoto-in Billy's hometown of Lexington, Ky., when Chrissa catches Billy in bed with his aunt. A sexually charged, drug-fueled trip across the country is an unoriginal scenario, one that's mirrored in the too familiar characters here. But Hell, the founder of such proto-punk bands as the Heartbreakers and Television, writes with occasional zest and in an authentic voice.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

In his first novel, Hell, an originator of the Punk Rock movement, presents the story of junkie musician Billy and his French girlfriend, Chrissa. Hell's tale contains lots of sex and drugs but not enough rock'n'roll, which is too bad, because the rock'n'roll could have made this book more exciting. Reading about someone mainlining heroin, snorting coke, smoking dope, and raiding a relative's medicine cabinet for Percodan, etc., wears thin even when the narrator is as intelligent, funky, and sex-obsessed as Billy. And though Billy gets it just right when he describes places?as the title implies, Go Now is also a road novel?instead of seeing Nineties America from a rocker's perspective, we just see more of Billy's head. This is not to imply that some of Billy's riffs aren't interesting, or that Hell fails at giving us an inside view of a druggie's existence. But one evenutally tires of run-on sentences describing the depraved life. Recommended only for collections in which this kind of book will elicit interest.?Doris Lynch, Monroe Cty. P.L., Bloomington, Ind,
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (June 25, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684832771
• ISBN-13: 978-0684832777
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 4.9 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #851,556 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not perfect but resplendent, May 9, 2004

By 

"illyoumin8or" (Big City, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Go Now (Paperback)

I have read this book twice and I sometimes open it at random just to get the feeling and human excitement the writing brings to me. I grant you it's not perfect. There is some sloppiness and places where he goes too far, but this book is mesmerizing and lovely. I see that some of the reviewers seem to resent a person who is a rock and roll musician publishing a book of fiction. Well it so happens that Patti Smith IS a remarkable writer, and so is Richard Hell. (So is Jim Carroll for that matter -- it's his rock and roll that's doubtful. Same goes for Patti Smith in my opinion.) People also resent writing that deals with drug users. The lead character in this book is a drug addict -- yearning to get free of it -- but the book is about being human, in other words having animal drives that are contrary to one's ideals. It's sexy too. But even more it's about perception. The book's insights are as deep as any novel that's appeared in thirty years. You should read it.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An articulate tour of Hell and degradation, March 30, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Go Now (Paperback)

The fasciniating thing about Go Now is the fact that it lacks the elements that so many "struggling junky artist" stories seem to use as a crutch: any kind of apology, regret, or pity. Hell exercises the same brilliance and articulation of his lyrics with the Voidoids and Dim Stars in this cut-and-dried, action/reaction novel set in the life of a decadent early eighties NYC junky musician.. a subject Hell, sadly, knows a little about. This book is neither weak nor dull; neither is the author's mind.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A hefty insiders look at addiction and habit, March 5, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Go Now (Paperback)

Richard Hell has scored with novel Go Now. An insiders look at the internally working of an addict and his skewed but sometimes beautiful view of the world. The writing is lyrical, agile and graceful. Definity the inheritor of the junkie-prose tradition Hell has created a novel that is sublime in spots and gritty in other but all together a thrilling ride