Recently Grove Press released the new Dennis Cooper novel. It's called "God Jr.", and it's in some ways a departure from his usual work. It's existence is owed to the fact that, among other thing, he wanted to write a book that his 13 year old cousin could read... Thus this is the first PG-13 Dennis Cooper novel. There's very little violence, no sex scenes at all, not even any gay characters.
It's pretty short at 163 pages, with big print. I read the whole thing in a few hours. It's really quite interesting. A lot of it revolves around video games and this one man's obsession with a game his dead son used to always play. Cooper tackles a lot of philosophical issues here, more so then usual. What is god? What is reality and the point of existence? The meaning of death? And so forth and so forth. Just these questions are being pondered by pixelated Gamecube denizens and talking snowmen. I'm curious as to what video game inspired these scenes... The main character manipulates a bear icon so perhaps Banjo Kazooie? There's some really great imagery though... That's what I've always liked about Cooper's work... You get page after page of minimalist description and dialogue and then he just hits you with a brilliant line of dialogue or a dazzling image.
He's got a new website now that's very in-depth, and from there you can access his blog, which is fascinating reading: Right now he's in France, with his Russian boyfriend who has been having Visa problems and difficulties geting into America. They visited De Sade's castle recently. And took pictures of the Divine Marquis' crib. Check it out, and ask him a question while you're at it... He responds to almost anyone who comments, though I've only asked him one question thus far. |
