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Overview
The first novel by the acclaimed author of The Ice Storm and Purple America traces a group of friends in Haledon, New Jersey, through one spring in their rocky passage toward adulthood. They are out of school, trying to start a band, trying to find work - looking for something to do in the degraded terrain of their suburban hometown. Garden State captures the lyricism of stark lives in an intense and unforgettable story of friendship and betrayal. With a new preface by the author.A brilliant and uncompromising look at life as a Generation Xer. Haledon, New Jersey, is a suburb in eclipse. On the hills above the mid-Atlantic sprawl, the kids are looking for something to do. Four disaffected twentysomethings pass the time playing in garage bands, drinking in seedy bars and doing drugs--until real life finally shakes them from their stupor. 224 pp. National ads & publicity. Author tour. 20,000 print.
Synopsis
On the occasion of the paperback release of Demonology, Back Bay Books takes pleasure in making all four of Rick Moody's acclaimed earlier works of fiction available in handsome new paperback editions.
Library Journal
These New Jersey kids have it all: rage, poverty, depression, paranoia, violent sex, cheap booze, mental hospitals, nihilism, street drugs, suicide. It's an American nightmare set to a blaring punk-and-thrash soundtrack. What are their prospects: ``Nothing had come since high school and . . . nothing would come of the years ahead.'' What about their parents: ``Lower down, Ruthie loved disaster.'' Not deeper down, just lower. Work is a trap, family a sick joke, and not even fantasy brings relief: ``Fantasies are like ideals. . . . Close in on them and they move. Further out, mostly.'' Unlike Bret Easton Ellis's American Psycho ( LJ 1/91) and similar rolls in the sleaze, this book is well and subtly written. You may not initially identify with these folks, but you learn just how they feel, why they try to escape, and why running solves nothing. In the end, can there be any hope that a cynical heavy metal bimbo and a fragile former mental patient will help each other turn their lives around? Well, maybe. This winner of Pushcart's Tenth Annual Editors' Book Award is very powerful. Highly recommended.-- Jim Dwyer, California State Univ. at Chico