Customer Reviews

Voluntary Madness

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

Sexy, gritty and raw, yet at the same time intelligent and touching, VOLUNTARY MADNESS proves Vicki Hendricks is the queen of noir. The novel is the story of young Juliette and her relationships with the characters around her - especially her drunken, would-be novelist boyfriend Punch. Their plan is to defy the futility of the world by "living wild" in Key West, Florida for a year until their money runs out at which time they will unite in a spectacular, public double suicide. This is a hardboiled book, with vivid, tough prose and crime elements that build as the tale progresses, but the genius of the story is the novel's struggle to differentiate between art and life, and the conflict inherent when these terms become mutually exclusive. A quick and frank read with the ability to cull weak readers from literary herd.

Wow! What a tipsy ride through town this was. Hendrick's has really captured the unsavory, but oh so captivating life in Key West. She paints such vibrant characters in this book: a failed flasher--ho!ho!(she can't seem to stun the KW gay guys with her exposed beaver); a pathetic but lovable, suicidal diabetic who is a Hemingway wanna-be; and a Lesbian witch who makes you want to race out and have sex no matter what your prefrences are...

The main duo in the book pull off the zaniest capers. They're literally all over town. If you know Key West you'll love the mixture of real and imagined characters. There's these robberies where the best of Key West food is the target. Chefs all over the island are hoping not to be left out. It's funnier than reading the Key West Citizen's crime report. It's written with more literary pizzazz than Hendrick's has ever shown before.

A parrothead's must. The perfect book to take with you when you visit. The perfect book to remember Key West life...

I couldn't believe I actually cried through the last 3 chapters of the book! Ah, the bitter sweetness of true love. The characters were so unapologetically dysfunctional that it made the story that much more real and that much more beautiful. Hendricks makes you feel like you're watching a homemade video of a real-life couple's tragic story.

I have to admit I wasn't counting on much when I picked it up, but it is a great book. It pulls you through really quickly, and the ending is very satisfying. It is quirky and fun, and it seems to be very reflective of the real Key West. I recommend it highly.

This novel has a relentless bleakness to it that reminds me of David Goodis's best work. It's a sort of Bonny and Clyde for the new millenium, with plenty of Hendricks' great ertoica sequences. Maybe it's because of the vivid restaurant scenes, but the book also reminded me of Choke by Chuck Palahniuk....Highly recommend this fast, highly entertaining read, as well as Hendricks' noir classic, Miami Purity.
Jason Starr, author of Twisted City, etc

Voluntary Madness is a loosley updated and modern Bonnie and Clyde story taking place on the Florida Keys. This is a masterfully written novel, a noir erotica classic! The writing is tough, gritty, graphic, and leaves you disoriented. This is one of those books you can't put down, and it takes you on one hell of a ride. And if it's ever made into a movie (and it should be!) Brittany Murphy would be ideal to star in it. I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves either noir or crime fiction.

-Dave Zeltserman, author of In His Shadow

Nobody knows the sunny, toxic landscape of South Florida like V. Hendricks, and in Voluntary Madness, she goes to the end of that tropical world to Key West with a fragile, dog-tired couple who are looking for a reason to keep on living. Punch prowls the street like a hungry wolf, while his wisp of a girlfriend waits 'till sundown to slip off her dress to any passerby who'll watch. Juliette's a kitten, full of youth and energy, and the image of her tossing her small, cotton dress into the moonlight is both tender and delicate..but made even more poignant when her own true love, Punch, delivers the blow that knocks Juliette into the adult world of despair. There is violence and sex in voluntary Madness, like there is in all of Hendrick's books, but there is also that sweet sadness that Hendrick's always seems to capture, which transforms her work from noir to a heartbreaking song of human pain.