Guide [Hardcover]

Dennis Cooper (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1997

Presents a disturbing and provocative exploration of four young men who want more than anything to be altered by drugs, the power of love, or the violently erotic experiences they share with each other."

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Over the past 15 years Dennis Cooper has established himself as the preeminent spokesperson and chronicler for angst ridden teens in Los Angeles. In Closer, Frisk, and Try, Cooper delineated the existential crisis of gay teen boys with no place to go but down, nothing to look forward to but death. Cooper's plots usually revolve around the idea that there are people--usually older men--who are willing to help them with this last desire. Cooper tells a similar tale in Guide, but has placed himself in the middle of the action as a participant. Beautifully and chillingly written, Guide is Cooper's most disturbing, transgressive tale yet. A visionary masterpiece as sublime as it is frightening.

From Library Journal

Those familiar with Cooper's work (Wrong, LJ 5/15/92) know that his fiction makes use of some unsavory, at times shocking, subject matter. Necrophilia and child pornography may be taboo in Cooper's world, but they are practiced nonetheless. Against a backdrop of pop culture, this first-person narrative chronicles the exploits of a half-dozen teens viewing life through the heavy veil of drugs and apathy. Though the story is as compelling as it is perverse, Cooper purposefully overrides it with an innovative style and raw, truthful character studies. Deeply lonely, the characters don't trust their own feelings and experience life in spurts. Interaction with anything outside themselves is a contest without a prize. There is a real elegance to the choppy waves of prose, which allow this work to transcend the form of the novel while working within it. With Guide, Cooper claims his place, alongside Genet and Burroughs, as a master of his own disenfranchised generation. For all literary fiction collections.?Douglas McClemont, New York
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 176 pages
• Publisher: Grove Pr; 1st edition (May 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802116086
• ISBN-13: 978-0802116086
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,853,860 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars blown away, August 12, 2000

By 

jeremy (new york) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Guide (Cooper, Dennis) (Paperback)

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.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A brave, original, and shocking novel, October 18, 2003

By 

Douglas King (Cincinnati, OH United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Guide (Cooper, Dennis) (Paperback)

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.

13 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars sick, wrong fun, June 28, 2002

By 

Jemiah Jefferson "author and bon vivant" (Portland, OR, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Guide (Cooper, Dennis) (Paperback)

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.