Vernon God Little

Author: DBC Pierre
Publisher: Open Road + Grove/Atlantic
ISBN: 0802194354
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 222

Book Description
“If Huckleberry Finn were set on the Mexican-American border and written by the creators of South Park, it might read something like this.” —San Francisco Chronicle Hailed by critics and lauded by readers for its riotously funny and scathing portrayal of America in an age of trial by media, materialism, and violence, Vernon God Little was an international sensation when it was first published in 2003 and awarded the prestigious Man Booker Prize. The memorable portrait of America is seen through the eyes of a wry, young protagonist. Fifteen-year-old Vernon narrates the story with a cynical twang and a four-letter barb for each of his townsfolk, a medley of characters. With a plot involving a school shooting and death-row reality TV shows, Pierre’s effortless prose and dialogue combine to form a novel of postmodern gamesmanship. “A dangerous, smart, ridiculous, and very funny first novel . . . Pierre renders adolescence brilliantly, capturing with seeming effortlessness the bright, contradictory hormone rush of teenage life.” —Sam Sifton, The New York Times

Meanwhile in Dopamine City

Author: DBC Pierre
Publisher: Faber & Faber
ISBN: 0571334008
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 407

Book Description
***Shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize 2020*** FROM THE BOOKER PRIZE-WINING AUTHOR OF VERNON GOD LITTLE 'Pierre's high-risk prose explores and expands the cartoonish, taboo-busting outer edges of literary possibility.' -- Independent *** It's a big bad world out there, in Dopamine City. All Lonnie Cush wants is to keep his kids safe. But Shelby-Ann - his little girl, the maddening apple of his eye - has other ideas: Shelby-Ann wants her first smartphone. So new realities are rocketing their way to 37 Palisade Row, where everything will change, every day, and at mortal speed. Until Lonnie finds himself in a stitch: he'll have to join this new world, or wither in it. Or can he mastermind a vanishing act? The story of a hapless father's love and loss, and a speedball, starburst satire, Meanwhile in Dopamine City is a passionate, freewheeling work from the winner of the Booker Prize: a riotous cry for the soul and the flesh and the heart in the cooling bathwater of our automatic times.

Lights Out in Wonderland: A Novel

Author: DBC Pierre
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393082326
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 353

Book Description
"Lights Out in Wonderland has all the verbal wit and energy of Vernon God Little."—Financial Times Gabriel Brockwell—aesthete, philosopher, disaffected twenty-something decadent—is thinking terminal. He's decided to kill himself—but not immediately. His destination is Wonderland. The style of the journey is all that's to be decided. Traveling between London, Tokyo, and Berlin, Gabriel is in search of the bacchanal to obliterate all previous parties. His adventure takes in a spell in rehab, a near-death experience eating a poisonous Japanese delicacy, and finally an orgiastic feast in the bowels of Berlin's majestic Tempelhof Airport. Along the way, Gabriel falls apart, only to reemerge with a new outlook on the world and a mission to right his past wrongs. Lights Out in Wonderland is an allegorical banquet, a sly commentary on these End Times and the march toward banality, and a joyful expression of the human spirit.

When I Was Five I Killed Myself

Author: Howard Buten
Publisher: ABRAMS
ISBN: 1468309951
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 161

Book Description
“[A] graceful and brilliant novel . . . leads the reader on a journey through childhood autism that proves enlightening as well as fascinating.” —ForeWord Magazine Burton Rembrandt has the sort of perspective on life that is almost impossible for adults to understand: the perspective of an eight-year-old. And to Burt, his parents and teachers seem to be speaking a language he cannot understand. This is Burt’s story as written in pencil on the walls of the Quiet Room in the Children’s Trust Residence Center, where he lands after expressing his ardent feelings for a classmate. It begins: When I was five I killed myself . . . In this rediscovered modern classic from “one of France’s best-loved contemporary writers,” Howard Buten renders with astounding insight and wry language the tale of a troubled—or perhaps just perfectly normal—young boy testing the boundaries of love and life (Time). “Buten uses his wit like a whip to get at the heart of this boy’s own story . . . bringing some shock and some power to that delicate line between youth and the rest of the world.” —The Austin Chronicle “This psychologically intense tale moves quickly, and the difficult task of creating a child’s voice with authenticity and depth proves Buten a gifted stylist and storyteller . . . [an] imaginative and provocative book.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review “Certainly Buten offers some insight into a troubled child’s mind.” —The New York Times Book Review

Adolescence in "The Catcher in the Rye" and "Vernon God Little" - A comparison

Author: Katrin Karle
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
ISBN: 3656242097
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 31

Book Description
Seminar paper from the year 2011 in the subject Didactics for the subject English - Literature, Works, grade: 1,0, University of Frankfurt (Main) (Amerikanistik), course: 20th Century Adoles/Scenes, language: English, abstract: The term “adolescence” describes the phase of life between late childhood and adulthood. It contains not only the physical maturation but particularly the psychological and mental development from a child to an autonomous, responsible adult. Also literature has ever and anon created adolescent protagonists who have to deal with typical problems of coming of age. A prime example for such a novel of initiation is “The Catcher in the Rye”. This novel nearly fulfils all aspects a novel of initiation has to deal with. Although “The Catcher in the Rye” was published sixty years ago, it still finds general approval to people all over the world. Another very successful novel of initiation is DBC Pierre‟s “Vernon God Little” which was written in 2003 and won the Man Booker Prize in the same year. The Daily Mail described the 15-year old protagonist Vernon Gregory Little as “one of the most engaging narrators since Catcher in the Rye ́s Holden Caulfield”1 and Sam Sifton from the New York Times says that Vernon Gregory Little is a “Holden Caulfield on Ritalin”2. There is no doubt that these two novels have considerable similarities: In both novels, the main character is a male adolescent who tells his story as a first person narrator. Both stories have their sets in the United States and both deal with issues concerning adolescence. I want to research which further similarities these two books have, in particular concerning adolescence. Therefore I am going to take a deeper look into typical issues these two adolescents have to deal with. First of all, I am going to give a short overview about the plot to the reader so the reader understands further issues of my work. Then, I will examine typical signs for adolescence like external and internal conflicts and language use of the protagonists of “Vernon God Little” and “The Catcher in the Rye” as well as the historical context of these two books. I am going to examine all these aspects in order to find out how the two novels explore the problems associated with adolescence and the narrators‟ messages regarding society.

Alien Stories

Author: E.C. Osondu
Publisher: BOA Editions
ISBN: 9781950774326
Category : Science fiction, Nigerian (English)
Languages : en
Pages : 176

Book Description
Short Fiction Prize-winning collection of short stories that use science fiction to explore immigration, diaspora, and the concept of otherness.

Story of My Life

Author: Jay McInerney
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 1408854503
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 185

Book Description
_______________ 'Line for line, it's one of the funniest novels I have ever read' - John Sutherland, London Review of Books 'Story of My Life is quite as brilliant as Bright Lights, Big City' - Sunday Times 'McInerney has proven himself not only a brilliant stylist but a master of characterisation, with a keen eye for the incongruities of urban life' - New York Times Book Review _______________ It is party time in eighties Manhattan. Smart, sassy and cynical, Alison lives for the moment. Her life is a carnival of gossip and midnight sessions of Truth or Dare, and her cocaine-bashing friends and flirting flatmates all crave satiation. Young and beautiful, hip and indulgent, sex-crazed and alcohol-fuelled, Alison can neither pay her fees for drama school nor track down her indifferent father. She juggles rent money with abortion fees, lingering lovers with current conquests and is the despair of her gynaecologist. She's fallen deeply in lust with Dean, although that nasty present Skip Pendleton left her with hasn't yet cleared up. Story of her life, right? But in a world of no consequences, Alison is heading for a meltdown. _______________ 'McInerney's novels, filled with the depiction of glamorous imbecilities and hilarious excesses, are acute about a certain kind of Manhattan amorality. They offer a swift, intelligent guide to the latest racket' - Observer

Jim Giraffe

Author: Daren King
Publisher: Anchor Canada
ISBN: 0385672829
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 229

Book Description
Scott Spectrum is being haunted by a ghost giraffe named Jim. Scott thinks he’s a man how has everything — a high-speed internet connection, alien-shaped slippers, and a beautiful wife called Continence. But Scott hasn’t touched her in years and she’s been left furiously polishing the sideboard, dreaming of black stallions. According to Jim, Scott’s days are numbered, and to save himself from certain death from sexual repression he must quickly perform every act in the lovermaker’s lexicon. Jim Giraffe knows a lot about sex, luckily. He also loves pizza and beer and has breath that smells of tree-tops. The prudish Scott is at first shocked by this profane, perverted ghost giraffe, but he accepts his help. Little does Scott realize that Jim has his own agenda and that his suburban idyll is about to be well and truly buggered up. Following on from the cult classic Boxy an Star, Daren King has written another extraordinary novel: highly original and linguistically ingenious, naïve and knowing, utterly charming, filthy, and very, very funny.

Release the Bats

Author: D. B. C. Pierre
Publisher: Faber & Faber Social
ISBN: 9780571329281
Category : Authorship
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
A book about writing fiction by the author of Vernon God Little.

Release the Bats

Author: DBC Pierre
Publisher: Faber & Faber
ISBN: 0571283195
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 257

Book Description
When DBC Pierre burst onto the scene in 2003, he arrived with no particular literary education. Finding he had something to say, he made the journey solo to that place where dreams and demons live, to try and turn feelings into words.Part biography, part reflection and part practical guide, Release the Bats explores the mysteries of why and how we tell stories, and the craft of writing fiction. DBC Pierre reveals everything he learned the hard way.