Mall [Paperback]

Eric Bogosian (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 25, 2001

From the award-winning avatar of contemporary urban theater and author of such modern classics as Talk Radio and subUrbia comes this outrageous novel about five suburbanites whose lives intersect in one violent and life-altering night -- at the local mall.

Mal, a thirtysomething speed freak, shoots his mother, torches his house, and heads to the local mall with a sack of weapons and a plan for more mayhem. Danny, a voyeuristic businessman with a fetish for young underwear models, is caught by mall security peeking into dressing rooms at JCPenney. Jeff, a teenager with existential troubles, drops acid and departs on a philosophical nightmare. Donna, a hungry, unsettled housewife, is on the lookout for a one-night stand. Michel, a Haitian immigrant and mall security guard, seeks salvation. All long for a kind of satisfaction, and this longing leads them to the modern plaza of possibility, the shopping mall, where their appetites converge in explosive ways.

Satirical and provocative, Mall is an eye-opening look at suburban life and the idea of "normalcy." In this, his first novel, Eric Bogosian delivers a dark, hilarious, and biting commentary on an American culture fraught with sex, drugs, violence, and congested thinking.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Penzler Pick, January 2001: Here Eric Bogosian, a playwright and actor, takes his keen eye to that particularly American venue, the mall. On any given day, the mall attracts hundreds of thousands of diverse characters who are not always there to shop. On this particular night, Bogosian concentrates on five of those characters, suburbanites who interact with each other in ways that are, for the most part, destructive.

Michel is an Haitian immigrant who works as a security guard at the mall. He's been there all evening and he spends his time thinking about his wife who died tragically. He misses her, but he will be forced to put all thoughts of her away as he becomes the first to deal with the horrendous events that start to unfold around closing time.

Jeff is a teenager who hooks up with his friends and drops acid. He wonders if Adelle likes him. She seems to, but she also seems to like his friend Beckett. Jeff's trip will get more surreal as the night progresses and will take him places he's never been before.

Donna is married with a son, but it doesn't seem to be enough. She is at the mall looking for romance and a little adventure. She'll find both.

Danny is a young businessman whose fetish for young women modeling underwear takes him to the women's dressing room at J.C. Penney. There he will find his own private nightmare.

And affecting them all is Mal. Mal is a speed freak who, before setting off for the mall with a car full of weapons, murders his mother and sets fire to his house. He is looking forward to an evening of more murder and mayhem.

This story moves along at the speed of an express train, one that isn't going quite where you thought it was. Bogosian has created a night that will not be easy to forget. --Otto Penzler --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

A faithful exegete of suburban nihilism, playwright and solo performer Bogosian delivers for his first novel a surreal "day in the life" tale that explores two of his trademark themes: suburban life and the illusory nature of "normalcy." Mal is a 30-something speed freak living with his mother in a drugged out fog, unwashed and virtually unconscious. After 90 days on crystal meth, Mal kills his mom, then goes on a rampage at the nearby mall. Bogosian uses this event to introduce a cross-section of mall life. Jeffrey, a dreadlocked teen, fantasizes about being a writer. He's got a crush on Adelle, whose narcissistic ennui he attributes to "a kind of efficiency. She's full of life but she's saving herself for the right moment...." His friend Berkeley has scored some retro windowpane acid, and so Jeff experiences Mal's fiery incursion in a hallucinatory state. Businessman Danny is a hapless, though hardly innocent, shopper at the mall, who spots Donna, an exhibitionist, sex-starved housewife performing a kinky striptease in a half-open dressing room. The police catch Danny peeping and arrest him, but then Mal, now shooting indiscriminately in the mall, pegs the cops, and Danny is left to wander around in handcuffs, which is how he runs into Adelle, who takes Danny on a sexy ride he may never recover from. While Bogosian's teen characters seem a little bit like rejects from a To Die For casting call, his droll remarks and dramatic pacing make this debut novel a typically Bogosian experienceDlively and unique. If this absurdist La Ronde sometimes goes over the edge, Bogosian's stature in contemporary pop culture, and his proven ability to work (and self-publicize) in numerous media, should give his novel legs. Agents, Claudia Cross, George Lane.
Copyright 2000 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: 256 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (December 25, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743214552
• ISBN-13: 978-0743214551
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,246,324 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Misled, November 22, 2000

By 

Michael Hutchinson (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews

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

What initially piqued my interest in this book were the reviews written on the back cover by other published authors that promised action and intensity. While I found both of these elements in the plot, I felt somewhat cheated by the author's choppy writing style. Each time a new character is introduced, or a new scene takes place, Bogosian leads the reader to the edge of the cliff, and then...ends the chapter. He makes it difficult to really become engrossed in the characters or their surroundings. While this style is likely used (effectively, by the way) by the author to keep the reader reading, and to create the "couldn't put it down" effect, it leaves the reader with an uneasy, insatiated feeling.

Another disappointment was the superficiality with which the author touched on the narcotics underworld. While I credit the author for having what seems to be more than just a textbook knowledge of the substances used by his characters, I found myself hoping he would dramatize this abusive element of his characters' behavior more so than he did.

In an apparent attempt to voice a commentary on the state of affairs in Sububia, USA, he fails to include his thesis. Too many times, the characters question things without ever really resolving anything. Further, the points that were made clear, were trite and boring, and already hashed out in many a "session" in college dorms across the country.

Ultimately, I think a reccomendation on this book all depends on the reccomendee. Adolescents and young twentysomethings struggling to find their identity might find this book entertaining, but I would advise against it for the sophisticated adult reader.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mall unravels America's contemporary social fabric..., February 6, 2001

By 

Michael Punsalan (Toledo, Ohio, USA) - See all my reviews

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

With an overdose of fast-paced energy and killer verocity, Eric Bogosian's new book, MALL, takes it's readers into a whirlpool of non-stop, thought-provoking, well done suspense. While Bogosian keeps the reader engorged with powerful social and cultural rhetoric; humorous AND anxiety-prone passages are strung throughout the chapters-keeping the reader "laughing out loud" while remaining fearful of "what happens next."

Bogosian utilizes a technique of well-crafted parallel story-telling, thus allowing the reader to experience the story through six different characters almost simultaneously, WITHOUT reducing the tension from chapter to chapter. Wrapping the story in circles intertwines the six characters live's in humorous, and often unsuspecting ways.

Although critics of this book might argue the lack of character development, I would wholeheartedly disagree. Given the literary constraints on writing a book of this style and format, Bogosian gives adequate character development considering the rapidly moving rising action of the plot. With too much "Stephen King-style character development", the book Mall would lack the tension that Bogosian illustrates in short development. Bogosian follows his old style of "play writing" in creating a story that jumps to the action....leaving the reader "sitting on the edge of their seat."

Once again, Bogosian drops several socially satirical comments and passages throughout the book, hoping to spark a socially rhetorical thought. Much like his earlier works, Bogosian taps a human nerve that unleash disguised sentiments of a disgusted American culture. Whereas "SubUrbia" circumvented the modern day convenience store, and "Talk Radio" hit the unheard and unseen voices of the American air waves, "Mall" unravels the fiber of America's contemporary social fabric, the shopping mall.

I highly recommend this book to avid fans of Bogosian and would encourage new readers to possibly pick up earlier Bogosian work, as well as his current work, Mall.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantabulous!, September 27, 2004

By 

Daniel W Gonzales "book maven" (Whittier, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mall (Paperback)

This is one of my favorite books of all time that I think tests the limits of what we call literature, it is probably one of the best contemporary novels that I would put into the catagory of postmodernism. We literally mind-surf into several characters heads and see whats going on, the characters all interlink through a story of a much larger scope and Bogosian creates a satire of American culture rival to that of American Beauty or anything in recent memory. This would make a great film, do not believe the naysayers, Bogosian is a very talented writer and I cannot wait until his next novel comes out.