Customer Reviews

Guide (Cooper, Dennis)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I read this book back to back with another that was dedicated to the author. I'd never heard of Dennis cooper so I didn't know what to expect. I was going to give it three stars but then I realized that was only because it was so upsetting. Along with how well written and engrossing it is, that's actually a reason to rate it higher, so I did. It was my own fear getting in the way. The real frustration was the absence of a moral stance. It's like Bret Easton Ellis that way - you have to make up your own mind about what's going on. You realize you're just getting angry because there's no re-assurance provided, you're totally immersed in a world with no ethical designations. This book is one of the more powerful I've read for that. I'd say this is about as transgressive and gutsy as writing gets. Glad I found it.

Dennis Cooper is an incredibly brave and original writer. His books, however, are not for the faint of heart. "Guide", which is part of a five book cycle that also includes "Closer", "Try", "Frisk", and "Period", is my favorite of his novels because he dares to include himself in the middle of his usual tales of drugs, abuse, exploitation, violence and depravity. He ingeniously draws from an article he wrote for "Spin" magazine about a handful of teenage runaways, and blends reality, fiction and fantasy to create a shocking and original novel. Is what takes place in "Guide" a truthful look into Cooper's own fantasy life? Or is it merely his way of showing how society sexually exploits and degrades young people? It's up to the reader to decide.

I don't think there's anything profound about Dennis Cooper. As far as I can tell from having read this book and "Frisk", he writes the exact same book again and again, just changing the characters and circumstances slightly. Dennis has an agenda, and that's to make you squirm, if not with his nihilistic political worldview, with his graphic depictions of all manner of sexual expression, from remarking on the prettiness of pre-adolescent boys to rape, drugging, and dismemberment.

"Guide" is, as widely dicussed, probably the most celebrated piece of fanfiction ever written. Cooper gets props for writing a thinly disguised interlude wherein Alex from "Slur" gets picked up, stuffed full of roofies, and used as an amusing pawn in someone's fantasy life. It is extremely funny if you know anything about fanfiction, and has guaranteed him hundreds of sales from Blur fans desperate to pick up anything even vaguely smacking of their messiahs. (I am a fine example of this, as well as being interested in Cooper's oeuvre, and wondering if I could get through another of his books).
"Guide" is a little funnier than "Frisk", and that makes it a lot easier to get through. If you are even slightly upset or traumatized by the concepts of gay sex, pedophilia, or sexual violence, you would be well advised to stay away. However, if you think "Naked Lunch" is charming and brilliant, and you enjoy the smellier bits of "Le Chants de Maldoror" or "Our Lady of the Flowers", you'll totally dig "Guide", because it is really funny, if totally offensive to pretty much every slightly healthy member of society.

This book is a remarkable account of several lost teenagers living in the LA area with the main character telling the story, which is the author. It has many scenes describing homosexual activity, rape, murder, snuff flim making, etc...The basic elements for nihilism on the West Coast. It's a good read for those who have a strong stomach and enjoy homoerotic text. Far more darker and intelligent than most books out there.

It's been two years since I bought 'Try', and was eagerly awaiting 'Guide' to progress across the Pond to us here. The first chpater nearly put me off - the druggy stuff goes on for pages, and it's really quite boring, but I suppose the author thought it a necessary 'sub-guide' to clue in people unaccustomed to illegal substances. Anywa, donlt be put off by it. 'Guide' really takes off after that, and shows a new, more mature (maybe that should be 'more confident') I-character, now battling not so much with his desire to eviscerate young men but with apparently 'warm fuzzies' for Luke. Around them, various shades of disintergrating youth charge ever-onwards towards their inevitable end. Cooper's other stuff usually makes my chest hurt. This made me cry. The material is presented as bluntly as ever, and the array of characters displays Cooper's usual - and very welcome - attack on modern gay homogeneity. I canlt recommned this highly enough. No trite platitudes here, but a crystal clear vision of the compexities involved in any - not just desire-based -relationsships. Lots of questions and few answers - which,considering mostepople donlt even know there's a question to be pondered, is so healthy. Just read it. It's good people like Cooper write and long may he continue to do so.

Guide is the most brilliant book I've read in years. It amazes me to read some of the other reviews here. Cooper's readers seem to want him to continue to do what he did so brilliantly in Closer and Frisk, when he's outgrown that approach, and written a novel much more complex and deep, but with all the power of his earlier books. Guide proves Cooper is truly one of our greatest, most orginal and innovative writers. I can't recommend this novel highly enough.

Mr. Cooper has a gift of making extremely controversial and uncomfortable subject matter compulsively readable. His books are obviously not for everybody, but his genius isn't hard to see if you can stomach the contents.
This is brave and important writing.

This one or "Try" are the novels I usually offer to those of my friends who have not read Cooper yet but may be uneasy about some of the content. What is often missed is his pitch-perfect ear for contemporary dialogue, his wit and marvelously graceful prose. Some compare him to Jean Genet. This is fair, and perhaps a nice thought to have when you begin reading his work, but in fact Dennis Cooper is better than that. Better than William Burroughs as well. He is one writer here now who will definitely be read in one hundred years (if people still by then read -- which I think they will).

I just generally love Dennis Cooper, but this book feels grounded and concrete in a way his other books sometimes don't - the people are presented as people, in a community, as opposed to the elegant distanced Genet-esque (Genetian? Genetic?) tone he sometimes strikes.

I couldn't put it down for more than a minute, I read it cover to cover and afterwards i curled up into a ball and cried. It's the most realistic, eye opening and simultaneously humorous and surreal thing i've ever read. passing it up is like passing up air on a sinking ship.