Kiss Me, Genius Boy (No More Dreams 1) [Kindle Edition]

Ben Hourigan (Author)

Book Description

"In that moment, there arose all the resolve I hoped would be with me when I finally met her, and my vertigo turned to exultation. So what if she was married? I had contemplated that long ago, and decided I'd have her anyway."

Joshua Rivers was born to expect great things. A former child prodigy and the son of a lottery winner, he also believes himself blessed with a vision of his perfect destiny and his perfect love.

Now in his early twenties, Joshua already feels left behind by life. His long-time lover Lilian Lau is well on her way to becoming a famous artist, and his former classmates are also racing toward their success. Meanwhile, he waits for the moment, and the girl, that will show him his time has finally arrived. When it does, he resolves to take what is his, whatever it costs him or anyone.

Kiss Me, Genius Boy is the first part of the No More Dreams series: an unusual story about love, ambition, and the problems of being privileged.

----

Praise for Kiss Me Genius Boy:

"I’ve been telling my friends how refreshing it is to read something by one of my generation, instead of something by someone that's dead. … Above all I admired the pithy, adroit little maxims on the nature of things." —Dylan Thorn, author of I'm Dead

"Uniquely refreshing … particularly erotic in its unabashed candidness." —Madeline R.

"A page turner, very funny and unusually honest and frank … Lily really steals the show. A nymphomaniacal exploiter of men and women, a deeply interesting, entertaining and wild character who lights up every page she is on." —Nicola G.

"Just read Berko scene from KMGB. Kick ASS! That scene just earnt me buying vol 2 when it comes out. Lily needs a cape and skin-tight leather pants. Lily needs her own graphic novel. Lily should be immortal, and probably is. Read KMGB so you can meet Lily. I secretly think she is Joshua's alter-ego. I think she might now also be mine." —Esme F.

"Simple, direct but with subtle, thought-provoking passages about self-awareness and one’s relation to life and others. I can’t wait for the next book." —Aiza C.

"Honestly I love it. It made me realize more the complexities and dimensions of love and loving." —Mary J. T.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Ben Hourigan was born in Rosebud, a beachside town near Melbourne, Australia, in 1981. His essays have appeared in the The Age, News Weekly, the IPA Review, and a range of academic journals. He has been interviewed as an expert on libertarianism and popular culture by ABC Radio, and for articles appearing in USA Today and The Christian Science Monitor. Ben holds a BA (Hons.) in English and Asian studies from the University of Melbourne, and an MBA from the University of New England. He has lived and worked in Melbourne, Sydney, and Ôsaka. Kiss Me, Genius Boy is his first novel.

Product Details

• File Size: 1269 KB
• Print Length: 252 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1466465239
• Publisher: Nameless Books (September 15, 2011)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B005NH7AJO
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Not Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #656,528 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Solid debut from a talented novelist October 16, 2011

By M. MacConnell

Format:Kindle Edition

It's rare that I'll take the time to sit down and read another novelist's work, mainly because I might end up facing the dreaded prospect of discovering just how lacking my own work is by comparison.

Unfortunately, that's exactly what happened with Mr. Hourigan's "Kiss Me, Genius Boy".

The characters are three-dimensional, instantly like-able and (unlike 99% of all characters written in novels today) act in ways that are both believable and delightfully unpredictable. It's clear that a great deal of work has gone into crafting the story line, and I eagerly await Mr. Hourigan's next work.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Kept me reading - great characters February 9, 2012

By LEA KOUKOUTSIS

Format:Kindle Edition

With work and everything that I want to/ must do outside of work, I find it hard to sit down and concentrate and be absorbed by a book the way it was so easy to do so when I was younger.
I found I didn't have that problem at all with this book. The characters are all alive and vibrant (especially Lilian) and I can relate to Joshua's feelings and thoughts about his surroundings, the people around him and the process of growing up.
Having the story set in Melbourne is also entertaining as that's where I live and so feels of immediate relevancy to me.
Maybe the story of a genius growing up in Rosebud doesn't seem on the surface like it would be that entertaining, but it really really is.
Well worth a read.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Funny, honest page turner November 21, 2011

By Nicola Gray

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

The first installment of this entertaining novel follows the adventures past, present and future of Joshua Rivers - arrogant, dissatisfied and anti-authoritarian, yet surprisingly endearing as we follow him in his quest to find love, both of the romantic and more temporary kind.

This is a far more polished novel than one generally expects from a first time novelist. It is also a page turner, very funny and unusually honest and frank, particularly the childhood and teenage scenes, which are bound to strike a chord with all readers.

Mr Hourigan has a knack of turning the mundane into the fascinating or entertaining, whether it be place or people. The novel is populated with all kinds of unique characters, but to my mind it is the character of Lily who really steals the show. A nymphomaniacal exploiter of men and women, Lily is a deeply interesting, entertaining and wild character who lights up every page she is on.

I highly recommend this novel to anyone who likes to be surprised when they read, to chuckle and to cringe, and to feel you are in the hands of a writer who will take you where you want to go.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Early life-experiences recalled May 8, 2013

By Linna

Format:Paperback

Ben Hourigan's book "Kiss Me, Genius Boy" was like reading into a school boy's mind - the curiosity about girls, sex and love.

Joshua and Lilian are two very frank characters of the book that can bring out your childhood sins (if you have any). It takes you to the beginning of how it all started.

I love this book because there are excellent character development and clear narrative. I enjoyed Joshua's desire of becoming a writer and his struggles with love and ambition. It's honest, perverted and funny book.

It is written with detailed "precious" moments that reminded me about my school days and first love. Many books I've read takes me to new experiences but not many take me back to my forgotten ones.

I really enjoyed it and look forward to reading more of his books.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Doubtful Genius vs The Best Slut In Town October 9, 2012

By Aiza COrtes

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

It was amazing! It was light, with bits of humor and the honesty of what teenagers and young adults, special or not, are really going through. In fact I could really relate well to Joshua Rivers--his dreams, frustrations and even his views about destiny, sex, love and existentialism. In my opinion, a true genius is someone who takes a complex thing and makes it look simple while the academic does the opposite. I may not be a genius, but I am innately curious about a lot of things. I could not better put into words what Joshua Rivers had said in the story. My favorites are those bits wherein he rebelled against authority, the sense of right or wrong. Also, my other favorite character is Lily. She's brutally blunt, forward, and fearless. Her promiscuity only makes me love her more. I could sense that there is something to her than sexual acts, like it was just a facade to cover up some inside vulnerabilities. Or whatever. Writing style reminds me a bit of Stephen Chbosky's The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Simple, direct but with subtle, thought-provoking passages about self-awareness and one's relation to life and others. I can't wait for the next book. I'm sure I will not be disappointed reading more about Joshua Rivers and company.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Lily needs a cape and skin-tight leather pants October 9, 2012

By E Foong

Format:Paperback

An entertaining book that (sometimes uncomfortably) lodges the reader inside the head of a randy teenage boy. Joshua Rivers (the protagonist) is both an obnoxious little twit with a big vocab, and a truly sweet boy. So I found myself alternating between feeling infuriated and charmed. The book teleported me right into this time and space in the author's life. Neat.

Being frankly semi-autobiographical, KMGB does a fine job of playing the "did this happen, or didn't it?" game. Best thing about this book is that it doesn't shy away from the truth. Nope, it's all out on display, although you have to look really closely sometimes.

KMGB's real superstar is Lily, the sexy, sassy "love" interest. Lily needs a cape and skin-tight leather pants. Lily needs her own graphic novel. Lily should be immortal, and probably is. Read KMGB so you can meet Lily. I secretly think she is Joshua's alter-ego. I think she might now also be mine.

More About the Author

I was born in 1981 in Rosebud, a tourist town on the Mornington Peninsula, about an hour and a half's drive from Australia's second-largest city, Melbourne. The son of two art teachers, I grew up in a large house in nearby Tootgarook, filled with books and art and paints and paper and love.

My first novel--Kiss Me, Genius Boy--includes a lot of autobiographical material. It's set in the culturally isolated bayside area where I grew up. Like me, the main character, Joshua Rivers, learned to read very young, and skipped two grades in primary school. He endures a lot of unhappiness in love (all his own fault), but also has some undeserved good luck in that area, which he's frequently ungrateful for. His favorite book and mine are the same: The Dispossessed, by Ursula Le Guin.

But my characters are not exactly me, or the people I know, and the stories I tell aren't exactly the stories of our lives. The kind of fiction I write is a mashup: bits cut out of reality, rearranged and spliced with outright fabrications, in the service of telling a story and exploring the deeper truths in life. In this case, what's fascinated me over the past few years I've been working on this first novel, and the two further volumes of No More Dreams that follow it, is the peril of living solely for one's dream of a perfect future.

I like to read a wide range of things: aside from Le Guin, I'm deeply attached to Kundera, Tolstoy, Laozi, Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, Leonard Cohen, and Ayn Rand. But the author who's influenced me the most is the Japanese Nobel Prize winner Kenzaburo Ôe, author of A Personal Matter and The Silent Cry. It's Ôe who inspired my present semi-autobiographical approach, and Ôe that inspired me not to gloss over the ignoble and grotesque things that we think, that we do, and that are done to us and others.

As I grow older, and as I confront the world through art, it strikes me more and more that as humans we are united in suffering, in death, and also in love. My mission as a writer, should I have one, is not just to disseminate whatever small degree of vision or wisdom I may have, but also to remind people that in their alienation and their darkness, they are not alone.

May you find, in the pages I have written for you, something to light your way in the night.