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Word Made Flesh [Paperback]

Jack O'Connell
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)

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Reviews

"This dense, allegorical novel rigorously moves through an unfamiliar, labyrinthine dystopia ... Biblical references, imaginative riffs on academic deconstruction and a bleak futuristic vision add a literary flair to this dark tale." - Publishers Weekly

"A marvelous mystery about the birth and death of language, the strange, chaotic power of the printed page in our sad, high-tech universe, and the need of one cop-turned-tax driver to pull memory from amnesia." - Jerome Charyn, author of Citizen Sidel

"O'Connell tests the boundaries of noir mystery/suspense in this latest mind-boggling installment ... Under the conventions of crime and punishment, O'Connell's nightmarishly original vision of incarnation unflinchingly displays the various harrowing ways words can indeed be made flesh." - Kirkus Review

"Word Made Flesh took my breath away and replaced it with an hallucinatory mixture of nitrous oxide and a cold wind from a future world that's both eerily frightening and erotically mesmerizing. More than anything else that I've read in the last ten years, this is where the writing of the next millenium is going to happen: a brilliant synthesis of science fiction and noir sensibilities." - K.W. Jeter, author of Dr. Adder and Noir

"Word Made Flesh gripped me from beginning to end." - William Peter Blatty, author of The Exorcist

"The imaginative interplay between genre and theoretical improvisation makes this not only a muscular and rewarding read, but also a thought-provoking one." - Uncut, UK

"To call this novel a noir thriller is like calling the 9th one of Beethoven's symphonies. Jack O'Connell is a writer's writer, and Word Made Flesh is virtuosic. From the first word, he immerses you into barely imaginable darkness of the human psyche. O'Connell's words slice; his images leave you squirming. You'll want to put this book down; in fact, you'll want to take it outside and bury it deep. But you won't be able to. It's the kind of nightmare you don't want to wake up from." - Michael Kimball, author of Undone and Mouth to Mouth

"Jack O'Connell is crime writing's hidden treasure. He has created ... a surrealistic noir quilt that both fascinates and scares the devil out of you ... Gripping, strangely poetic and moving, eye-blinkingly violent, this is a milestone of imaginative writing ...Unmissable." - Time Out (UK) "From its bravura opening to its apocalyptic conclusion, Word Made Flesh is a frightening, exhilarating ride. In four remarkable books, Jack O'Connell has riffed on language, fire-cleansed genre conventions, and stripped the artifice from the modern noir novel, creating a body of work both exciting and entirely original. Word Made Flesh has the power, and permanence, of myth." - George Pelecanos, author of The Sweet Forever

"A writer of terrific gifts." - The Independent, London

"The dark incantations that open and close Word Made Flesh are mesmerizing. The scope of the book links enormous and terrifying acts of imagination ... A potent cocktail of Lovecraft, Poe, and hardcore American noir." - Katherine Dunn, author of Geek Love

"Think Blade Runner as imagined by Kafka in a dream of Fritz Lang ... A rhetorical exercise in satiric impersonation that's paced, reactive, and laced with the ghosts of screams." - The Guardian, London

"A hardcore work of art, equal parts ultraviolence and poetry. Sucks you in and doesn't let go." - Poppy Z. Brite, author of Exquisite Corpse

Jonathan Carroll, author of Kissing the Beehive

"Word Made Flesh made the hair stand up on the back of my mind. Dark, cunning, and wickedly clever, it outsmarts you at just about every turn. Terrific stuff."

Michael Ledwidge, author of The Narrowback

"Word Made Flesh is a great book, as intelligent as it is thrilling. Jack O'Connell writes with a rare, dark grace. The alluring nocturnal world he draws us into lies smack dab between Chandler's and Kafka's. Word Made Flesh disturbed me and I mean that with the greatest of admiration."

Neil Gaiman, author of Neverwhere

"A bloody, Borgesian nightmare, Word Made Flesh exists at the confluence of suspense, of horror, of roman and detective novel, using all of these approaches and more to eviscerate the language and reveal the Wormtown inside each one of us."

Michael Marshall Smith, author of Spares

"A triumph of style and content: a world of such dark, repellent beauty, teetering forever on the edge of nightmare - yet shot with rays of curdled sunlight. As its damaged characters slug their way out of the back streets of language a whole new voice is born, the most compelling I've heard in a long time. Assured and utterly satisfying."

Michael C. White, author of A Brother's Blood

"One of the most original novels I've read in years. Made up of equal parts hard-boiled detective story, futuristic satire, myth, and metafiction...a heady concoction...Imagine Kafka writing The Maltese Falcon, or Borges or Pynchon one of Raymond Chandler's novels and you only begin to get a sense of what this funny, complex, and thoroughly entertaining novel is about."

Booklist

"A wildly original novel, part hard-boiled crime novel, part literary thriller, and part postapocalyptic cartoon ... The bizarre milieu, O'Connell's gracefully orotund narrative style, and his mode of explication are the reasons readers should follow ... into the dark night of Quinsigamond."

James Ellroy, author of L.A. Confidential

"A chase story, an allegory, and a brilliant riff on language. Jack O'Connell is the future of the dark, literary suspense novel."

Product Description

In a story reminiscent of a Raymond Chandler novel written instead by Kafka, the main protagonist, Gilrein, wanders the New England town of Quinsigamond looking for clues surrounding the murder of a cab driver.'

About the Author

Jack O'Connell won the ($50,000) 1990 Mysterious Press Discovery Contest for the Best First Crime Novel for Box Nine. He is also the author of Word Made Flesh and Wireless both published by No Exit. He is a magazine editor and schlemiel and lives in Massachusetts. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
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