Nick Flynn met his father when he was working as a caseworker in a homeless shelter in Boston. As a teenager he'd received letters from this stranger father, a self-proclaimed poet and con man doing time in federal prison for bank robbery. "Another Bullshit Night in Suck City" tells the story of the trajectory that led Nick and his father onto the streets, into that shelter, and finally to each other.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. Learn more. |
Book Description
Product details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, and more.
Product Description
Review
"Readers of memoirists Frank Conroy and Tobias Wolff will relish Flynn's pungent account of two rudderless souls who navigate their way back into each other's lives."
About the Author
Nick Flynn is the author of two collections of poetry, Blind Huber and Some Ether, and the acclaimed work of non-fiction, Another Bullshit Night in Suck City. In another life he worked as an electrician, a ship's captain, and as an educator in New York City public schools. His words have appeared over the years in The New Yorker, The Nation, Fence, The New York Times Book Review and The Paris Review. His most recent work, the memoir, The Ticking is the Bomb was published by Faber in 2009. One semester a year he teaches at the University of Houston, and then he spends the rest of the year elsewhere.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
44 of 49 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a great "guy" book -- I don't know how women would like it. But it's basically a memoir and a recounting of a father/son relationship. Of course, it's also the story of the author's somewhat difficult coming-of-age.
What makes it so enjoyable is the writing, which is truly excellent. I hate to use the word "poetic" because it might turn some people off - and I don't mean to imply "arty" or "vague" - but there is definitely something lyrical about how the author recalls incidents of his boyhood.
Let me put it this way: the writing is intense. It's concrete, tight, simple -- the prose of an author who is also a poet. But please understand it isn't flowery or flighty. It's very focused work. Substantial.
Also, I appreciate the short chapters, and frequent paragraph breaks which make it very easy to take. Some people have called this memoir depressing. It's not. Besides being a father/son relationship, it's also the story a "failed" writer: the author's father wanted to be a great American author but ended up as a self-deceiving drunk. This is life. For me, the book is realistic without being too grim.
More importantly, it's a book about survival -- the son's survival to adulthood. As a memoir, I found this book to be much better than A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius because it's lot more focused and "compressed" and not so full of self-conscious "irony." Anyway, pick up a copy this great book. Another book I need to recommend is called The Losers' Club: Complete Restored Edition by Richard Perez, a much lighter book -- but a very substantial, enjoyable and fun read.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book is a brilliant analysis of a failed father/son relationship, and the unconventional success of the son based on his own drive and determination. An interesting read for any father or son, and particularly for one in a difficult father/son relationship. Highly recommended.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Another Bull**** Night In Suck City attracted my attention when I saw the trailer for the film based upon it Being Flynn starring Paul Dano and Robert De Niro.
The novel is a memoir of father and son, the impact growing up without a father had upon Nick Flynn as a boy and the complex psychological reaction and range of emotions Nick is put through when his absent father suddenly becomes a present client at the homeless shelter at which he works.
This book has a completely unique story to tell, I have not read a story like the situation Nick Flynn is faced with before. His father Jonathan, as described by him reminded me immensely of Joe Gould from the Joseph Mitchell portrait of the homeless character on New York's streets.
Jonathan similarly is full of grandiose beliefs and claims, including being related to the inventors of various things, and being descended from the Romanov dynasty. A failed writer he is racist, conceited, bombastic and rude, you pity Nick Flynn completely for having to deal with this man, for having to have his colleagues, friends and girlfriend know his father for what he is.
But, Another Bull**** Night In Suck City rises entirely above the plethora of "my awful childhood" books that dominate supermarket shelves because it is wonderfully written and literary in style. I empathised with Nick strongly throughout, like when he tends to homeless men in the street, gives them food and blankets and does not know if the man in the next doorway will be his own Dad. Or when from inside his house he spies his father alone, walking, and is guilt-ridden for not inviting him in but knows for the sake of sheer self preservation he cannot.
I saw someone on Amazon say they think it might be quite a male book, but I think the emotions transcend gender and I think anyone who has had a difficult or failed relationship with one or both parents will identify.
Where the book falters slightly is when he introduces experimental elements such as casting his father in a play not literally but as part of the narrative, these don't quite work. But, like David Vann's Legend Of A Suicide the emotional realities conveyed in this story are frequently so real that the reader feels the author's pain, which is an achievement indeed. 8/10
The novel is a memoir of father and son, the impact growing up without a father had upon Nick Flynn as a boy and the complex psychological reaction and range of emotions Nick is put through when his absent father suddenly becomes a present client at the homeless shelter at which he works.
This book has a completely unique story to tell, I have not read a story like the situation Nick Flynn is faced with before. His father Jonathan, as described by him reminded me immensely of Joe Gould from the Joseph Mitchell portrait of the homeless character on New York's streets.
Jonathan similarly is full of grandiose beliefs and claims, including being related to the inventors of various things, and being descended from the Romanov dynasty. A failed writer he is racist, conceited, bombastic and rude, you pity Nick Flynn completely for having to deal with this man, for having to have his colleagues, friends and girlfriend know his father for what he is.
But, Another Bull**** Night In Suck City rises entirely above the plethora of "my awful childhood" books that dominate supermarket shelves because it is wonderfully written and literary in style. I empathised with Nick strongly throughout, like when he tends to homeless men in the street, gives them food and blankets and does not know if the man in the next doorway will be his own Dad. Or when from inside his house he spies his father alone, walking, and is guilt-ridden for not inviting him in but knows for the sake of sheer self preservation he cannot.
I saw someone on Amazon say they think it might be quite a male book, but I think the emotions transcend gender and I think anyone who has had a difficult or failed relationship with one or both parents will identify.
Where the book falters slightly is when he introduces experimental elements such as casting his father in a play not literally but as part of the narrative, these don't quite work. But, like David Vann's Legend Of A Suicide the emotional realities conveyed in this story are frequently so real that the reader feels the author's pain, which is an achievement indeed. 8/10
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
›
Go to Amazon.com to see all 67 reviews
4.4 out of 5 stars
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
