TWELVE. [Import] [Paperback]

Nick. McDonell (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 244 pages
• Publisher: GROVE PRESS.; paperback / softback edition (2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1843540711
• ISBN-13: 978-1843540717
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (176 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,185,645 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

60 of 70 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Lack of talent meets sickening nepotism: whee!, January 6, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Twelve (Paperback)

As a college student, I felt embarassed for my generation when I read this miserable book. There are better writers on every block of Manhattan than Nick McDonell. Absolutely pathetic. Great to know that his godfather published the book, though, and his dad got it promoted.

Joan Didion came to my school a few months ago and gave a talk. At one point, during questions afterward, I asked her point blank why she gave blurbs to books that it seems hard to imagine she could have had any respect for whatsoever. (I didn't mention Twelve by name, but I haven't noticed her name on many other books, and certainly none as wretched as this garbage.) There was a pause and then she sighed and said, "You get trapped into it. Old friends ask, and you don't want to put a sour note in decades of friendship because you wouldn't write a sentence or two."

Joan Didion is old friends with Nick McDonell's father.

36 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Hype over substance, June 24, 2002

By 

A Customer - See all my reviews

This review is from: Twelve (Hardcover)

The most disturbing thing about this book is all the hype around it. Yes, the kid was just a teenager when he wrote it and that's definitely an accomplishment, but there is no way this book would've gotten published had it not been for all the industry connections he had. Morgan Entrekin, his publisher, and owner of Atlantic Books (Grove is owned by Atlantic), is also Mcdonell's godfather. I mean the book is okay, but there isn't really anything original here. There's no new voice of sorts and the content is old-hat teen druggie stuff, so I can't see how everyone's calling him the New Hunter Thompson, or the new B.E. Ellis. He hasn't had enough writing experience to pull off the hard-fought prose of those who have earned their merits.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars It's all about the Benjamins, July 4, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Twelve (Hardcover)

In this case, the book in question is a pretentious, boring, affected, self-indulgent novella bloated to nearly 250 pages. Its themes are passe, its plot familiar, its characters DOA, its dialogue laughable. I'm 16 years old, and I'm all for celebrating young talent... but this isn't it.