Slam [Paperback]

Lewis Shiner (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 19, 2001

Slam is a bright and acerbic depiction of the slacker culture of Texas, a testament to a lost and found generation. Dave stepped out of a Bastrop Federal Prison and into the home of one Margueritte Johnson, aka the Old Lady. The Old Lady passed on and left behind her house and twenty-three cats. The cats need a caretaker or so he thinks. There are others with an eye on the Johnson estate, and soon dave is caught up in a whirlwind of anarchists, golddiggers, skateboard punks, lawyers, hackers and arsonists--a population of dropouts and misfits who will do anything to avoid doing anything.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A bisexual, escaped convict who's a Phil Donahue fan, 23 cats and a heavy-metal groupie who almost strangled on her umbilical cord at birth are just a fraction of the vivid, extremely oddball characters populating Shiner's ( Deserted Cities of the Heart ) third madcap novel. The hero, however, is Dave, a 39-year-old ex-hippie just released from prison, where he'd been sent for not satisfying his IRS obligations. To satisfy the terms of his parole, Dave, now working as caretaker of a large beachhouse near Galveston, Tex., must follow to the letter the late owner's eccentric will. This means keeping her home exactly the same as it was when she died (not a picture frame can be moved) and making sure none of her felines escapes the premises. This difficult task takes on Sisyphean proportions when Dave is assailed by a leader of a UFO movement and an aging Mamie Van Doren look-alike, both trying to break the will. The only ways Dave can achieve peace of mind are by having sex with the aforementioned groupie, by visiting Fonthill, an estate where everything including the chairs and tables are made from concrete, and by delving into the Zen of skateboarding. No other writer, with the exception of Jerome Charyn, could have made a cogent world out of these disparate entities and a wild group of supporting players which includes cocaine dealers, a teenage runaway, a Christ-mongering probation officer and a lawyer who hates lawyers. An unqualified delight.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Realism, idealism, and fantasy are skillfully interwoven into a novel of personal adjustment and rebellion. Dave Stokes is a product of the 1960s who is trapped in a personal time warp. While his friends have compromised ideals for professions and families, Dave at 39 is newly released from prison after serving time for income tax evasion. Living on the fringes of society, associating with runaway teens, a down-and-out evangelist, a prison escapee, and other social discards, he finally makes peace with himself and his world, but not without straining credulity. Still, there is good to say about Slam. As an anti-hero, Dave is ethical and likable; the secondary theme of skateboarding is unique; and the tension derived from peripheral drug deals, arson, and other illicit acts is riveting. Slam will have strong appeal for a limited audience. --Thomas L. Kilpatrick, Southern Illinois Univ. at Carbondale Lib.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin; 1st edition (March 19, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312267770
• ISBN-13: 978-0312267773
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #722,092 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Real life cyberpunk, February 20, 2000

By 

Sharla Smith (Minneapolis, MN United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Slam (Hardcover)

This is about architecture and skateboarding, and lust, and about just being out of prison and trying to reenter society that is different from the one you left. He was in for tax evasion, and now has a job looking after twentysome cats that have inherited a fortune, which a lot of people are after. It is pretty cool and hard to explain. It all comes together in the end. If you like Lewis Shiner you should like this one.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Make no bones about it - this is a modern classic, March 6, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Slam (Paperback)

'Slam' is a fantastic book, criminally under-rated and deserves a wider audience, even a filmic adaptation. Imagine the energy of the flim Kids, mixed with the speculative sci-fi of J.G Ballard and the quirky humanism of say Jim Jarmusch, and you might be close. No book written in the last 15 years creates a better fratured suburban Utopia than Shiner's 'Slam'. Burn your Moody Ricks, because Shiner's 'Slam' is the real thing.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Make no bones about it - this is a modern classic, March 6, 2001

By 

"rocksteadyjew" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Slam (Paperback)

'Slam' is a fantastic book, criminally under-rated and deserves a wider audience, even a filmic adaptation. Imagine the energy of the flim Kids, mixed with the speculative sci-fi of J.G Ballard and the quirky humanism of say Jim Jarmusch, and you might be close. No book written in the last 15 years creates a better fratured suburban Utopia than Shiner's 'Slam'. Burn your Moody Ricks, because Shiner's 'Slam' is the real thing.