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Attention. Deficit. Disorder. [Special Edition] [Hardcover]

Brad Listi
3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
RRP: £20.00
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Book Description

20 Jan 2008

An impressive debut from a major new voice in American fiction.

Days after his ex-girlfriend's suicide, Wayne flies to San Francisco for her funeral. When he learns that she aborted their child, Wayne embarks upon a search for meaning that takes him to unusual places and through some of the most influential events of the past ten years.

His journey takes him up and down the East Coast on foot, then over to Cuba where he meets the fishing guide who inspired Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea, across the American West in an RV, ending up at the legendary Burning Man festival and an encounter with his soulmate, who turns out to be a six foot three giant of a woman in a purple cowboy hat.

Brad Listi's novel is a dazzling exploration of love and death that just so happens to include some drugs, prostitutes, naked cycling, Mantovani and the ingredients for a Molotov cocktail. It is one of the most inventive and rewarding debuts in years.

Attention. Deficit. Disorder. is the first great road novel of the 21st century.


Product details

  • Hardcover: 386 pages
  • Publisher: The Friday Project; Limited edition edition (20 Jan 2008)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1905548885
  • ISBN-13: 978-1905548880
  • Product Dimensions: 21.6 x 14.6 x 3.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 4,465,595 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

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Review

“In his graceful debut novel, Brad Listi evokes a portrait of grief that is weird and true. At once an adventure and a deep character study, Attention. Deficit. Disorder. is a book you'll want to share.”
Owen King, author of We're All In This Together

“An ironic, often humorous take on the anomie of youth”
People magazine

About the Author

Brad Listi lives in Los Angeles where he teaches creative writing at Santa Monica College. He has a huge following for his website and blog at www.bradlisti.com and he was the founder of the internet creative writing project www.thenervousbreakdown.com.


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I was at Horvak's apartment in the Haight, a couple of blocks from Golden Gate Park, on Waller. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars A Travel Book With No Dewey Number... 4 Mar 2008
Format:Paperback
First of all i work in a library so if you like books it's a bit like that old adage of a kid in a sweetshop, but seemingly i only like certain sweets. Now and again i pick up a book and it feels as if it had been sent to my branch just for me and you just cannot think of another customer who should enjoy it, to pass it on to. It feels personal. It starts with a suicide; a funeral... but don't let that put you off. There's a bit where he talks about people commiting suicide by jumping of the 1 and a half mile suicide hotspot that is the golden gate bridge and surviving. It's fascinating as these are obviously true facts yet relayed through a fictional account. That's the thing i like about this book, it's fact yet it's fiction. It's in a strange middle ground where you are there tasting the air, yet it's just blurred enough to be dreamlike. The narrator travels to Cuba, and describes what he gets up to and it reminded me of AA Gills travelogue description from 'AA Gill is away' but so much better. No bitter taste. Just an honest understanding. He travels to the burning man festival and in that respect it reminded me of Geoff Dyers 'Yoga for People who can't be bothered to do it' but with more emotion and blurriness/clarity?! Those two writers are english and Listi's american. An american writing about america. Is that why he wins? Nah, i just think he comes across better. The book feels modern - generation X ey, in a way. It feels right. Now. It's a travel book with no dewey number. It's a book about finding yourself... in the best possible sense. Just read it.
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3.0 out of 5 stars Flawed. Irritating. Promising. 11 Oct 2010
Format:Paperback
Listi's coming-of-age novel is a twenty-first century version of Kerouac's On The Road, only much less anarchic and drug-addled. Admittedly, I'm not the novel's target audience, being closer in age to the Beat generation than to Generation Z, but I enjoyed reading it, despite the sense of déjà vu.

In my opinion, the plot has several flaws. Firstly, I was not at all convinced that Wayne was particularly bothered by the death of his ex-girlfriend or the loss of his baby. In turn, the connection between those events and him deciding to take off on a road trip was lost on me. The whole thing just peters out towards at the end, with no sense of resolution, while the letter to her parents with which it concludes spoiled the book entirely.

While the intention may have been to replicate symptoms of ADD (the book's title), it tries too hard to be quirky. The inset dictionary definitions that punctuate the narrative really grate on the nerves, but they're easy to skip over without losing the narrative thread.

Having said all that, there are some glimpses of lovely writing. For example, when Wayne does a parachute jump, from the air "the beach looked like a long line of cocaine"; the parachute opened "and grabbed the atmosphere." The agent's assessment of Wayne's work was masterful and very cruel: "What's on the page right now is harebrained garbage and isn't even remotely worth the time and energy that would be needed to fix it." And I loved the bartering system at the Burning Man Festival, where Costco accept knock-knock jokes and songs in exchange for finding customers a soulmate.
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3.0 out of 5 stars Attention.Defecit. Disorder. 28 July 2010
Format:Paperback
Attention. Defecit. Disorder. is Brad Listi's first novel and like many first novels is an attempt to be refreshingly different - the unusual thing is that Listi is successful. The book starts with a collection of one-line quotations that make you feel "I like the way this man thinks - I wonder what it's all leading to?" before launching into the story of Wayne Fencer, who, after the suicide of his ex girlfriend, travels around North America and Cuba trying to sort out his mind and his life.

His adventures are sometimes moving and sometimes funny, but always very informative - the dividing line between fact and fiction is sometimes so hard to make out that I made frequent dashes to Google for help. And I learned a lot about modern America both from the book and my searches. I did, however, find the frequent dictionary definitions that peppered the book rather distracting and unnecessary.

The frequent location changes in the story make it more like a series of themed novellas than a single novel. This keeps the interest level high all the way through the book although by the end of it some of the questions that had been in my mind right from the beginning were still left unanswered.

All in all, a very enjoyable read and a book I'm sure will be a great success. I probably won't actively seek out the future novels which I am sure Listi will write, but if they are around I will quite look forward to reading them.
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