Godspeed: A Novel [Hardcover]

Lynn Breedlove (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 10, 2002

Jim is a speed-freak bike messenger whose devotion to her drug habit rivals the intensity of her adoration for Ally, her brilliant stripper girlfriend. When she's forced to choose between drugs and the girl, time and again she succumbs to her addiction-but somehow she's still unable to attain the ultimate high she seeks. After losing her messenger job, Jim works first as a downwardly spiraling drug dealer, then as a roadie for a touring all-girl punk band, and engages in short-lived halfhearted romances while pining for Ally. She winds up staying in a squat house in New York City when the roadie gig ends, and finally begins cleaning up her act. But upon eventually returning home to San Francisco, Jim finds that things have changed in a way she can't reconcile. It's only then she realizes the ultimate rush can't be found in sex, drugs, violence, or even Ally-the source of her rapture is something else entirely.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This free-wheeling, fast-paced drug odyssey -- the speed-addled San Francisco doppelganger of Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting -- features a butch female bike messenger named Jim, an all-girl punk band and the never-ending search for the rush that makes it all worthwhile. Jim's hardcore speed habit means she's headed nowhere fast; when forced to choose between drugs and the girl she loves, disaster and a cross-country road trip follow. Along the way, the reader is treated to a vivid portrait of a life in collapse, as well as poetic and seductive descriptions of the highs preceding this downfall. Jim's relationship with her stripper girlfriend, Ally, provides the story's emotional center and the arc of the protagonist's development. Amid a tornado of activity and attitude, the author builds a small oasis of honest and unvarnished emotion, constructing a touching and nuanced portrait of a boy who has not quite grown up. Jim rides fast and lives hard, yet somehow, beneath all the bravado and the crude drama, she retains an almost childlike innocence and purity of heart that radiates through the accumulated layers of grime and vice, carrying the reader through her darkest hours. The narrative can be gratingly autobiographical in tone at times, and the rushed, free-form style is occasionally a bit gimmicky, but this earnest debut is well worth the ride.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Breedlove's debut novel should be required reading for any teenager who thinks that the drug world is glamorous. Godspeed follows the trail of its heroine, Jim, a butch-lesbian and punk-rock fan who spends most of her waking hours trying to score her next high while supporting herself as a bicycle messenger in San Francisco. The story centers on Jim's breakup with her girlfriend, Ally, who finally tires of sending Jim out with money for food only to hear from her a day later when the money has been spent on drugs. After getting fired from just about every bike messenger job in the city, Jim goes on tour as a roadie with a punk-rock band, spending most of her time dreaming about patching things up with Ally but remaining captive to her addiction. Written in the dialect of the punk world, this novel might be difficult at first for the uninitiated, but after a few pages it takes the reader on a fascinating if cautionary tour of some of the seamiest places of the drug underworld. Recommended for large public libraries. Caroline Mann, Univ. of Portland Lib., OR
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press; 1st edition (April 10, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312286805
• ISBN-13: 978-0312286804
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.7 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,146,230 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tops on My List!!, July 7, 2004

By 

Treasure (Indianapolis, IN USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Godspeed: A Novel (Hardcover)

Wow! What a GREAT book!! I was hooked from the first line of Breedlove's Acknowledgements & loved that she included her mother's comment there.
For 30+ yrs, I've read a lot of lesbian fiction. I'm soooo tired of thinly plotted mysteries and tooooo many flower-labia, sunset and beaches coming-out romances. Unlike all of them, this story gets into the nitty gritty of a real sort of urban lesbian life, one more complicated than "am I or aren't I?", "will she or won't she" and "will she, with me?" storylines.
Reminds me a bit of 'A Crystal Diary : a novel' by Frankie Hucklenbroich, in that it's written (style & content)from inside the head of the protagonist, whether she's high at the time or not.
Gives it that sense of NOW, and keeps it real.
Like her musicianship with the band Tribe 8, Breedlove pumps it out with this book!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Shamelessly Ass-Kissing Review, November 5, 2004

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MacAodhagain - See all my reviews

This review is from: Godspeed: A Novel (Hardcover)

Godspeed was recommended to me by a friend, and when I first picked it up I found I couldn't put it down until it was finished - literally - about 24 hours later. It's a gritty and beautifully rendered novel and one of the best I've read in years (as I work in a bookstore that's a statement not to be taken lightly). It's certainly by far the best lesbian/drug/roadtrip and/or band novel I've read hands down. And be honest; that's what you really want to read about. In an effort to waste no more of your time let me just say: buy this book!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lynn is my new Herione, May 31, 2004

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Master of Cats "book. lover." (Wyoming) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Godspeed: A Novel (Hardcover)

Pretty damn good book. One of the best 80s San Francisco bike messenger junkie sex-fiend punk rock and roll novels ever written.