Old Friends [Hardcover]

Stephen Dixon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2004

In a literary scene gone dull with novel after novel about young up-scale New Yorkers with drug/sex/alcohol/attitude problems, leave it to the old master of the American avant-garde, two-time National Book Award-nominee Stephen Dixon, to write the most innovative, absorbing, and moving book of the season, OLD FRIENDS.

It starts with a chance meeting –- the wife of one shifty writer, in an effort to get him out of the house a little more, introduces him to another shifty writer whose wife would like to see him leave the house every now and then, too. Dixon then presents a stunning tour-de-force, tracing their friendship from its stumbling beginning –- visiting at each other's houses, of course –- through its sometimes hysterical, sometimes heart-wrenching lifetime . . . until the very end.

It's a virtuoso work, with the masterful Dixon at the height of his skills, mixing trenchant humor with blunt observation. But this book also shows off –- perhaps better than any of his previous books –- how Dixon manages to be both innovative and accessible at once, writing in clear prose that nonetheless seems to be etched in his own unique language.

The end result is an absolutely beautiful work of art -- a moving homage to the writing life, to friendship and love -- that's certain to be recognized as one of the celebrated author's very best books, and bound to win him a whole new generation of readers.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this deeply empathic novel, avant-garde veteran Dixon follows the lives of two writers from the time they meet as young men until late middle age. Neither Irv nor Leonard has achieved any great fame, and though there's a good deal of writerly chatter, it's really background music to the story of the daily struggles of two aging men and their families. Their lives are tragic, but not dramatically so—Leonard slowly fades into Lyme disease–induced dementia while Irv is busy caring for his crippled wife. What makes this book so good is Dixon's ability to invent characters just average enough that readers can identify with the banality of their pain. Typical of Dixon's work, the book is not divided into chapters, and the paragraphs stretch for many pages, often beginning with phrases like "About a year later" or "Before that," which account for very large or very small shifts in time. The last chronological events are revealed early on, and the gaps are filled in through letters, phone calls and meetings, which somewhat confusingly skip through the years. But like a hip Saul Bellow, Dixon seems to cover every facet of aging in America, from the waning of sexual vitality to the vulgarity of watching friends deteriorate and die in old age, all rendered with generous compassion for the suffering of mostly average people.
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Review

"Did you ever want to shake off a novel the way a retriever shakes off pond water? It's not that it's bad, it's just that some writers are able, in a mere 200 pages or so, to rewire your circuitry in a way that makes you unfit for your own life. Stephen Dixon is such a writer, and he can do it in a short story as well. His secret? Dixon writes so close to real life that you can almost play by his rules. His characters often live on the brink but never, miraculously, fall off -- like Irv and Leonard, both writers, in this new novel. When the novel opens, they're in early middle age. Leonard is loveably pathetic; he hasn't had a job since he was 15. He rarely leaves the house except to walk the dog and spends all day writing fiction that's published, once in a while, in literary magazines. Both are the opposite of the star-studded clan that includes Norman Mailer and Martin Amis. They type in anonymity and are not above living off women, whom they are also not above (in Leonard's case) cheating on. Leonard has a degenerative condition that works on his bowels and his mental agility; Irv marries a woman who after several years is wheelchair bound. The two geezers' friendship continues via letters and phone calls, all recorded by Dixon. The novel has a great case of logorrhea; it could be read aloud, like a one-act play. Irv and Leonard are boring, as people are most of the time. Why, then, isn't the novel?"
--Susan Salter Reynolds, Los Angeles Times

"Two writers aver their friendship through the infrequent exchanges that compose this beautiful, restrained book. Grafs (most represent a phone call) are long, but not long enough when one begins "Twelve years after," and suddenly babies are born, wives discarded. In the last 70 pages (a single day), Dixon stretches time with a Memento-like flourish ('Before that,' repeated), building back and up to Irv's visit to Lenny at the dementia clinic. Lenny urges Irv to steal his material 'cause he's at 'What happened to my life?,' admittedly, a 'lousy line, but what has to be said.' It's a rare moment of pathos—one Dixon's earned."
--The Village Voice

"In this deeply empathic novel, avant-garde veteran Dixon follows the lives of two writers from the time they meet as young men until late middle age. Neither Irv nor Leonard has achieved any great fame, and though there's a good deal of writerly chatter, it's really background music to the story of the daily struggles of two aging men and their families. Their lives are tragic, but not dramatically so-Leonard slowly fades into Lyme disease-induced dementia while Irv is busy caring for his crippled wife. What makes this book so good is Dixon's ability to invent characters just average enough that readers can identify with the banality of their pain. Typical of Dixon's work, the book is not divided into chapters, and the paragraphs stretch for many pages, often beginning with phrases like "About a year later" or "Before that," which account for very large or very small shifts in time. The last chronological events are revealed early on, and the gaps are filled in through letters, phone calls and meetings, which somewhat confusingly skip through the years. But like a hip Saul Bellow, Dixon seems to cover every facet of aging in America, from the waning of sexual vitality to the vulgarity of watching friends deteriorate and die in old age, all rendered with generous compassion for the suffering of mostly average people."
--Publishers Weekly

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 220 pages
• Publisher: Melville House (October 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0974960926
• ISBN-13: 978-0974960920
• Product Dimensions: 5.8 x 0.8 x 7.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,601,697 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Stephen Dixon is the author of twenty-seven works of fiction including, most recently, Phone Rings and Old Friends (both published by Melville House). His novels Interstate and Frog were both finalists for the National Book Award. Frog was also a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award. His work has received the O. Henry Award, the Best American Short Stories award, the Pushcart Prize, The American Academy Institute of Arts and Letters Prize for Fiction, and he has been a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Couldn't put it down, March 16, 2005

By 

Blue - See all my reviews

This review is from: Old Friends (Hardcover)

This short, moving novel by a beloved former teacher of mine really impressed me. It has the sad and sweet humaneness of a Chekhov tale, tack-sharp details strewn across every page and a brisk narrative momentum the FedEx fast talker might envy. The style is stripped for speed like a tricked-out Civic burning nitrous, much of the art being buried in the deeper tectonic shifts of the narrative.

Note for Charlie Kaufman fans: in the original screenplay of Eternal Sunshine, Clementine is twice shown reading a book by Stephen Dixon and tells Joel she likes his work. The kind of branching narrative Kaufman uses in that film is something he might well have picked up from one of Dixon's quietly masterful stories.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars an old master at the top of his form, November 10, 2004

By 

C. Christophe "gould" (Paris, France) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Old Friends (Hardcover)

i like short reviews so i'll stick to Mr Dixon's own words page 178 as to why i enjoyed his novel :

"the humor, timeliness, simple-language, lucid style, great dialogue and lively characters and situation"

also, while waiting for a paperback edition, if you manage to find a rare edition of his collected stories, you'll be very lucky