4% Famous: A Novel by Deborah Schoeneman  (23)
$11.01
|
Tabloid Love: Looking for Mr. Right in All the Wrong Places by Bridget Harrison (32)
$6.99
|
The Emperor's Children (Vintage) by Claire Messud  (226)
$10.17
|
Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl  (240)
$10.20
|
The Ruins (Vintage) (Vintage) by Scott Smith  (959)
$7.99
|
This item is not eligible for Amazon Prime, but millions of other items are. Join Amazon Prime today. Already a member? Sign in.
|
|||||||||||||
Customers Who Bought Items Like This Also Bought
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
The disaffected 20-somethings of nonplace Bayside, Queens, are the subjects of this debut slice-of-life novel, in which the search for the next high is the primary goal. Leon Koch, 23, is at loose ends when his two best friends, Ortiz and Rahmer, get out of prison. In college on and off, and occasionally working, Leon spends most of his time hanging with a loose, shifting posse of friends, girlfriends and ex-girlfriends. Downing scotch in Big Gulp cups and snorting lines of coke, they watch TV, go to bars, eat junk food, throw up, get the shakes, hallucinate. Resigned to their lives, they call law-abiding, wage-earning citizens "normals" without envy. Romance and love are suspect, and sex is kinky and abusive. Leon's friends are all aware of the precariousness of their lives, and suicide is the answer for more than one. One girlfriend says, " `The difference between having a nice quiet dinner and everything being looted and raped and burned to the ground is this much.' She pushed that little space between her fingers at me." At one point, they toast a girl for never having been raped by her father. Flat and jarring in equal parts, Leon's first-person narration conveys the particular brand of anomie experienced by perpetual adolescents marooned in the bleakest stretches of urban sprawl. Sometimes the lack of plot and character growth give the reader an itching desire to get off Spiegelman's merry-go-round, but Leon, despite his drink- and drug-fueled numbness, has an authenticity that makes him worth knowing.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
In this grim and assured debut, Spiegelman takes the reader on a nightmarish tour of the drug-fueled subculture of Queens. Leon Koch, a recent high-school graduate, leads a streamlined existence: his goals are to avoid getting killed by any of the neighborhood psychopaths who might have any grievance (real or imagined) against him and to make sure he has enough cocaine and alcohol to cushion his bleak existence. He bounces from one dead-end job to another and seeks out sadomasochistic relationships with the equally damaged women who make up his world. He allows himself to be swept up in his friends' ill-fated plans--busted drug deals or student protests gone awry--all the while knowledgeable of their limited chances of success. Yet, Spiegelman tempers this world's desolateness with Leon's compelling narrative: a world-weary and sardonic voice whose jitteriness belies the chemicals that course through his bloodstream. While some readers may be put off by the book's explicit descriptions of sex, drugs, and violence, others are sure to appreciate Spiegelman's humane portrait of this dark life. Brendan Dowling
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
See all Editorial Reviews
The disaffected 20-somethings of nonplace Bayside, Queens, are the subjects of this debut slice-of-life novel, in which the search for the next high is the primary goal. Leon Koch, 23, is at loose ends when his two best friends, Ortiz and Rahmer, get out of prison. In college on and off, and occasionally working, Leon spends most of his time hanging with a loose, shifting posse of friends, girlfriends and ex-girlfriends. Downing scotch in Big Gulp cups and snorting lines of coke, they watch TV, go to bars, eat junk food, throw up, get the shakes, hallucinate. Resigned to their lives, they call law-abiding, wage-earning citizens "normals" without envy. Romance and love are suspect, and sex is kinky and abusive. Leon's friends are all aware of the precariousness of their lives, and suicide is the answer for more than one. One girlfriend says, " `The difference between having a nice quiet dinner and everything being looted and raped and burned to the ground is this much.' She pushed that little space between her fingers at me." At one point, they toast a girl for never having been raped by her father. Flat and jarring in equal parts, Leon's first-person narration conveys the particular brand of anomie experienced by perpetual adolescents marooned in the bleakest stretches of urban sprawl. Sometimes the lack of plot and character growth give the reader an itching desire to get off Spiegelman's merry-go-round, but Leon, despite his drink- and drug-fueled numbness, has an authenticity that makes him worth knowing.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
In this grim and assured debut, Spiegelman takes the reader on a nightmarish tour of the drug-fueled subculture of Queens. Leon Koch, a recent high-school graduate, leads a streamlined existence: his goals are to avoid getting killed by any of the neighborhood psychopaths who might have any grievance (real or imagined) against him and to make sure he has enough cocaine and alcohol to cushion his bleak existence. He bounces from one dead-end job to another and seeks out sadomasochistic relationships with the equally damaged women who make up his world. He allows himself to be swept up in his friends' ill-fated plans--busted drug deals or student protests gone awry--all the while knowledgeable of their limited chances of success. Yet, Spiegelman tempers this world's desolateness with Leon's compelling narrative: a world-weary and sardonic voice whose jitteriness belies the chemicals that course through his bloodstream. While some readers may be put off by the book's explicit descriptions of sex, drugs, and violence, others are sure to appreciate Spiegelman's humane portrait of this dark life. Brendan Dowling
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
See all Editorial Reviews
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
|
Inside This Book Citations: 1 book that cites this book Explore: Citations | Concordance | Text Stats Key Phrases - SIPs: fucking head Key Phrases - CAPs: George Tatsis, Bell Boulevard, Carrie Fine, City Hall, Frankie Venages (more) Browse Sample Pages: Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover | Surprise Me! |
||
Inside This Book
(learn more)
<