Spider Kiss [Paperback]

Harlan Ellison (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 6, 2009

If you thought the only thing Ellison writes is speculative fiction, craziness about giant cockroaches that attack Detroit or invaders from space who look like pink eggplant and smell like chicken soup, this dynamite novel of the emergent days of rock and roll will turn you around at least three times. No spaceships, no robots, just a nice kid from Louisville with a voice like an angel and an invisible monkey named Success riding him straight to hell... The gritty rockabilly novel that drops the word on Stag Preston in the legendary, formative years of rock & roll, Spider Kiss will suck your socks off. This electrifying novel of the early days of rock & roll takes no prisoners as it runs an eye over the nice kid from Louisville with a voice straight outta heaven...and the demon Success on his back...and follows him down, down, down into a velvet-lined hell where nobody's grass is greener. According to premier rock critic Greil Marcus of Rolling Stone, this is the best rock novel ever written! (A copy of the first edition in mint condition holds a place of honor in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland.) "Harlan Ellison is the dark prince of American letters, cutting through our corrupted midnight fog with a switchblade prose. He simply must be read." --Pete Hamill "Ellison writes with sensitivity as well as guts--a rare combination." --Leslie Charteris, creator of The Saint

Editorial Reviews

Review

Harlan Ellison is the dark prince of American letters, cutting through our corrupted midnight fog with a switchblade prose. He simply must be read. -Pete Hamill "Ellison writes with sensitivity as well as guts---a rare combination." -Leslie Charteris, creator of The Saint --This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 204 pages
• Publisher: e-reads.com (August 6, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0759253137
• ISBN-13: 978-0759253131
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,216,470 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Harlan does Elvis., April 6, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Spider Kiss (Paperback)

Well, maybe not Elvis, but Elvis could play him perfectly in a movie version (if there were a movie version, and if Elvis would take such an unflattering role, and if he weren't old and, not to mince words, dead). Where was I. Yes, it's a full-length Ellison novel, one of his earliest, about a country boy who becomes a huge rock star. The interesting stuff is Ellison's creation of a character who is able to come across as a charming kid and a glamorous star, while gradually being revealed to us as a real scum of a human being. Ellison does it beautifully, from his vantage point as someone who has clearly spent too much time hanging around people in the showbiz industry

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Before your time, kids, October 28, 2001

By 

JCPancakes (Maryland, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Spider Kiss (Paperback)

I suspect that some of the reviewers here were not born yet when this book was written (1961). It is very much a piece of its time and era, back when Ellison really *was* an Angry Young Man (and not a Cranky Old Fart). It wasn't his best book, by any means, but it gives a cynical view of an industry that even then, used people. Yes, the rockabilly star might remind you of Elvis, but what happens might also remind you of the much older tale of Fatty Arbuckle. I read the book in the early 70s, and some of the imagery is still with me. I can still remember the off-hand comment about the visual effect of one-piece girdles, and I remember having to ask someone what it meant to have the cylinders in one's Mercedes re-bored. If you've read The Web of the City, you should read this too.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THE book on Rock & Roll, February 6, 2007

By 

punkviper (Pittsburgh, PA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Spider Kiss (Paperback)

I can't believe the bevy of 2-star reviews regarding this work! by people who claim to be H.E. fans, no less!! should i mention this is routinely cited as one of the best rock & roll stories EVER?! people, this novel was published in 1961, it's one of Harlan's early works & like many such pieces it has a very gritty & urban quality about it. the story may seem trite in this day & age, but remember that 1961 was far before the whole "debauched rock star" persona was etched into the collective American unconscious. and even though the story might be familiar, don't forget that the protagonist of the tale ISN'T the rock star! and his story makes the book that much better (btw, it wasn't Elvis that the rockstar character was based on, it was Jerry Lee Lewis.) i believe there are a cabal of "Harlan purists" who chafe at the idea of a young H.E. cranking out such hardboiled non-fantasy-oriented material, and as such seem to roll their eyes at anything this isn't I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream, or Beast That Shouted Love At The Heart Of The World. possibly because Spider Kiss is one novel that you don't have to be a rabid H.E. fan to enjoy. pick this one up and judge for yourself. not to mention, it's always worthwhile picking up an Ellison book before it goes out of print, as they all-too-often do.