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3.46 AVERAGE
3.46 AVERAGE
An ending that feels more like a cop-out than his other work, but I also recognize the rationale: this is a novel consumed by fantasy, about the ways in which sex and death drives mingle and coexist with the liberation that comes with shattering taboos. The narrator (a character named Dennis) vacillates between first-person and third-person omniscient perspectives, creating a narrative of many characters in which all their perspectives can be imagined, even when Dennis is not physically present for the goings-on he describes. Per usual, it's shocking, darkly comic, utterly grotesque, and genuinely ruminative. It bends genre and structural expectation, and the gloom lingering over every page expands into something like looking into a clarifying abyss.
This book revolves around a picture of a boy in a snuff photo, so don't expect this to be a book that isn't graphic.. Dennis Cooper writes a lot of heavy, graphic stuff involving homosexuality that is controversial but powerful. I really enjoyed this book regardless.
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
J'ai peu aimé la structure générale du bouquin, que j'ai trouvé moins bien maîtrisée que Closer. Quelques pages absolument insoutenables (voir TW). Une issue de secours similaire à celle de The Sluts mais sans le panache d'une construction narrative extrêmement bien menée.
Honnêtement, j'ai eu davantage l'impression de lire un enchaînement de fantasmes qu'un roman. Pas certain de terminer le cycle si le prochain ressemble à celui-ci.
Je conseille vraiment pas, surtout pour découvrir l'auteur.
Honnêtement, j'ai eu davantage l'impression de lire un enchaînement de fantasmes qu'un roman. Pas certain de terminer le cycle si le prochain ressemble à celui-ci.
Je conseille vraiment pas, surtout pour découvrir l'auteur.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Murder
I really didn’t follow a lot of it and I’m not sure why at all - had to kept flicking back and forth to remember who the characters were and for a short book I’m not sure why. The graphic letters were really good and the flow and obsession of Dennis really showed through.
challenging
dark
tense
slow-paced
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug abuse, Gore, Pedophilia, Sexual violence, Violence, Excrement, Murder
Moderate: Incest
dark
fast-paced
the multilayered structural work in this book blew me away. cooper uses segments of in-fiction fiction and letters to build up a world of uncertainty around dennis and what he thinks about. the narrative moves incredibly naturally. after finishing [b:Closer|563730|Closer|Dennis Cooper|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327886470l/563730._SY75_.jpg|407625] i did a bit of reading on the cycle (not much sadly as i couldn't find much) and according to cooper, the path of the cycle is a retroactive deconstruction, with closer as the starting point, the three middle books as the brunt of the thematic work, and the last as the final deconstructed and reconstructed interpretation of the first, after having gone through the dissections of 2-4 and completing the cycle. with that in mind, frisk is a natural step into deep conceptual and thematic material after closer. it draws on certain aspects and characters, george reconstructed as henry, and perhaps kevin, to focus in close on one angle of the original presented george miles story and dig into it, to the core. i'm going straight on to the next one; cooper is truly writing at a rare level where this intensely complicated and rigid structure of examination reads as fast as pulp fiction. i can't wrap my head around how he did it, i couldn't begin to explain his craft or process. it genuinely is beyond impressive i've rarely read anything so intentionally built and rearranged.
book 7/18 for my october horror challenge (again, let’s pretend i haven’t given up on that)
this was my second attempt at reading frisk, which i had previously dnf-ed at about 40-50%. at the time it was one of the first of these kinds of books that i attempted to read, so i reckon it makes sense that it didn’t work for me then.
i finished closer yesterday and frisk today. i definitely liked closer significantly more than i liked frisk, which similarly to “the sluts” takes the easy way out of making all the murder be made-up.
cooper’s writing style still feels very detached, which i think is quite interesting, tho in this one i felt it was more descriptive than closer had been. frisk felt more chaotic than closer, especially since the narrator switched up so much and so in-between, that it was kind of hard to follow at times, but also rather interesting to read.
overall i think this is the cooper book that i am least likely to re-read this far (unlike the sluts and closer, which i will both definitely be re-reading)
this was my second attempt at reading frisk, which i had previously dnf-ed at about 40-50%. at the time it was one of the first of these kinds of books that i attempted to read, so i reckon it makes sense that it didn’t work for me then.
i finished closer yesterday and frisk today. i definitely liked closer significantly more than i liked frisk, which similarly to “the sluts” takes the easy way out of making all the murder be made-up.
cooper’s writing style still feels very detached, which i think is quite interesting, tho in this one i felt it was more descriptive than closer had been. frisk felt more chaotic than closer, especially since the narrator switched up so much and so in-between, that it was kind of hard to follow at times, but also rather interesting to read.
overall i think this is the cooper book that i am least likely to re-read this far (unlike the sluts and closer, which i will both definitely be re-reading)
challenging
dark
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes