- Paperback: 176 pages
- Publisher: Flamingo (2 Dec 2002)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0007133677
- ISBN-13: 978-0007133673
- Product Dimensions: 19.2 x 12.8 x 1.4 cm
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 742,447 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Review
‘Pitch perfect…“Venus Drive” explores the complexity of despair with poignancy and sly wit.’ New York Times
‘Dark, nasty and very funny.’ Time Out
‘Stories that bring Raymond Carver’s low-life minimalism to mind…It’s fascinating to read a writer who can bring you so efficiently to such an uncomfortable place.’ Village Voice
Praise for Lipsyte’s debut novel ‘The Subject Steve’:
‘Sam Lipsyte is a gifted stylist, precise, original, devious, and very funny.’ Jeffrey Eugenides, author of ‘Middlesex’ and ‘The Virgin Suicides’
‘A brilliant novel, in every conceivable way.’ Toby Litt
‘I laughed out loud – and I never laugh out loud…’ Chuck Palahniuk, author of ‘Fight Club’
‘An original voice: smart, savvy…intensely funny.’ TLS
‘The best thing since George Saunders last broke cover…Kind of Beckett meets “Six Feet Under”, comedy doesn’t come much blacker than this.’ Uncut
‘Rowdy, shocking and lyrical…very funny.’ New Yorker
‘Dark, lancing humour, first-rate satire and writing that dares to be bold and edgy.’ San Francisco Chronicle
‘Laugh-out-loud funny…By turns strange, disturbing and hilarious.’ Irish Independent
‘Lipsyte’s first story collection gathers together 13 ferocious, truncated sketches… His characters take the world much too seriously and yet risk things much too lightly… Such collateral ironies make these stories simultaneously funny and disheartening.’ Publishers Weekly
‘“Venus Drive” is filled with grimly satisfying fractured insights and hardcore humor. But it also displays some inspired sympathy for the daze and confusion of its characters. Above all its wonderfully written and compulsively readable with brilliant and funny dialog, a collection that represents the emergence of a very strong talent.’
Robert Stone
Review
'Pitch perfect!"Venus Drive" explores the complexity of despair with poignancy and sly wit.' New York Times 'Dark, nasty and very funny.' Time Out 'Stories that bring Raymond Carver's low-life minimalism to mind!It's fascinating to read a writer who can bring you so efficiently to such an uncomfortable place.' Village Voice Praise for Lipsyte's debut novel 'The Subject Steve': 'Sam Lipsyte is a gifted stylist, precise, original, devious, and very funny.' Jeffrey Eugenides, author of 'Middlesex' and 'The Virgin Suicides' 'A brilliant novel, in every conceivable way.' Toby Litt 'I laughed out loud -- and I never laugh out loud!' Chuck Palahniuk, author of 'Fight Club' 'An original voice: smart, savvy!intensely funny.' TLS 'The best thing since George Saunders last broke cover!Kind of Beckett meets "Six Feet Under", comedy doesn't come much blacker than this.' Uncut 'Rowdy, shocking and lyrical!very funny.' New Yorker 'Dark, lancing humour, first-rate satire and writing that dares to be bold and edgy.' San Francisco Chronicle 'Laugh-out-loud funny!By turns strange, disturbing and hilarious.' Irish Independent 'Lipsyte's first story collection gathers together 13 ferocious, truncated sketches! His characters take the world much too seriously and yet risk things much too lightly! Such collateral ironies make these stories simultaneously funny and disheartening.' Publishers Weekly '"Venus Drive" is filled with grimly satisfying fractured insights and hardcore humor. But it also displays some inspired sympathy for the daze and confusion of its characters. Above all its wonderfully written and compulsively readable with brilliant and funny dialog, a collection that represents the emergence of a very strong talent.' Robert Stone
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9 reviews
17 of 20 people found the following review helpful
If, writin' is fightin', this book is a knockout-
14 Jun 2000
Format:Paperback
Sam Lipsyte writes very funny stories about very painful things. This is a *forceful* book - Lipsyte's characters are gripped and ripped by forces the writer brings alive with language that describes things words can barely contain: an apartment building full of old women waiting for death; a summer camp that mirrors, in mysterious ways, the cruel workings of concentration camps; a tele-marketer's face-off with loneliness... The subject matter can be shocking, and is often quite dark; the book is full of death, drugs, and abandoned dreams. Here's a passage from "My Life, For Promotional Use Only," in which a failed rocker turned dot-commer describes his new life:
"Once in a while, though, in the elevator at work, someone will stop me, a man my age with a cell phone, a portfolio case. He will ask me if I am who I am, recall with wonder something I did on stage with safety razors, mayonnaise. Maybe it's some dim gift I've given him, some phony idea that he's reached into danger long enough for one life. Now he can make some calls, do some deals. But neither of us knows what danger is. Neither of us is sinking fast through lake weeds."
But it's worth repeating that these stories, which reveal life with an honesty you'll see in few first-time collections, are often hilarious. Far from the fast (or slow) sink so much of today's fiction has become, this book - free of parlor tricks and cheap sentimentality, and full of small, hard, truths - is the triumphant surfacing of a fresh, and glorious, new voice.
9 of 11 people found the following review helpful
A remarkable debut
15 May 2000
Format:Paperback
Sharp, taut, seriously funny and tremendously sad. Comparable in many ways to Denis Johnson's Jesus' Son, but with greater range. A beautiful book that I just can't stop reading and re-reading.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Slackers not slacking but fighting hard
23 Aug 2006
Format:Paperback
Venus Drive might be a street or it might be an admonition to a woman in the getaway car after a bank robbery, but this book is one long riff on how folks get by. Not so much in how they get and spend their money, but in how they spend their lives. Life is currancy, and these people are flush.
If you like your books hot and twisted, read Rabid: A Novel by Kenyon, Tree of Smoke: A Novel by Johnson, The Pugilist at Rest: Stories by Jones, and Fight Club: A Novel by Palahniuk.
The Bookeater!
If you like your books hot and twisted, read Rabid: A Novel by Kenyon, Tree of Smoke: A Novel by Johnson, The Pugilist at Rest: Stories by Jones, and Fight Club: A Novel by Palahniuk.
The Bookeater!
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