God Jr.

God Jr.

The author of Closer "transcends the formulaic with exquisite writing on the level of Rimbaud's Illuminations . . . an American masterpiece" (James McCourt, Los Angeles Times ). God Jr. is the story of Jim, a father who survived the car crash that killed his teenage son Tommy. Tommy was distant, transfixed by video games and pop culture, and a mystery to the man who raised him. Now, disabled by the accident, yearning somehow to absolve his own guilt over the crash, Jim becomes obsessed with a mysterious building Tommy drew repetitively in a notebook before he died. As the fixation grows, Jim starts to take on elements of his son—at the expense of his job and marriage—but is he connecting with who Tommy truly was? A tender, wrenching look at guilt, grief, and the tenuous bonds of family, God Jr. is unlike anything Dennis Cooper has yet written. It is a triumphant achievement from one of our finest writers. "This beautiful book is a first-person narration of how grief grows and morphs after a death, and its style and naked pain make the reader feel like he has suffered a concussion . . . Carefully wrought in Cooper's trademark short, clipped sentences. There's no room for the pain to hide, and Cooper lays it bare with humor and striking honesty." — Time Out Chicago "God Jr. is probably Cooper's richest, most philosophical novel to date. If the cycle were a video game, this would be its Easter egg." — SF Gate "Absorbing . . . carefully spare, pop-cultures prose that has earned him a cult following." — Entertainment Weekly Jim has been an emotional mess ever since that terrible day a year ago when he got into a car accident that killed his teenage son, Tommy. Since then, Jim gets around in a wheelchair, but he has a secret: he can actually walk. He doesn't tell anyone because that would ruin a perfectly good punishment for himself: being disabled. He also smokes a lot of pot, which may explain why he is determined to turn one of his son's routine drawings into a huge monument in the backyard. When he discovers that Tommy made the sketch from a video game, Jim becomes obsessed with playing it--to the detriment of his job and marriage. The game--as well as the novel--takes on new dimensions when Jim feels he can actually communicate with aspects of the program, entering into an existential dialogue with a pixilated snowman on the nature of reality. Cooper lets the reader decided whether or not Jim has gone completely mad with grief in attempting to understand a son he knew only superficially in life. Jerry Eberle Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved “This beautiful book is a first-person narration of how grief grows and morphs after a death, and its style and naked pain make the reader feel like he has suffered a concussion. . . . Carefully wrought in Cooper’s trademark short, clipped sentences. There’s no room for the pain to hide, and Cooper lays it bare with humor and striking honesty.” —Jonathan Messinger, Time Out Chicago “Cooper has always been know for tight, gruesome prose and this is no exception. . . . Razor-sharp . . . heartrending.” — Cargo “Cooper has transformed the all-American boy story. . . . Transcends the formulaic with exquisite writing on the level of Rimbaud’s Illuminations. . . . Cooper has his characters seeing and saying things–crucial things that nobody else writing today sees or says. . . . God Jr. is restive, uncertain and, most important, uncanny. . . . He is to be honored for following in Beckett’s footsteps so fearlessly. . . . It is an American masterpiece.” —James McCourt, LA Times “Absorbing . . . carefully spare, pop-cultures prose that has earned him a cult following.” —Adam B. Vary, Entertainment Weekly “Cooper is at his best, really, writing for the unreal, the half-alive, the animated figures that form the other-world of Tommy’s desire: the computer game figures. Here he brings us characters who say things and do things and mean things.” —J. Peter Bergman, Edge “The ingenuity of the narrative . . . is indeed compelling. Still, the best things here are Jim’s disclosures of his piercing, unending grief over the loss of the son he loved–and grew close to–too late. . . . Probably Cooper’s best yet.” — Kirkus Reviews “Cooper’s genius has always been for dialogue: the clipped marriage and workplace exchanges feature searing ironies and delicate nuances that are arresting.” — Publishers Weekly “The boldest step into a new paradigm of narrative I’ve read in a while.” —Jim Krusoe, The Los Angeles Times Dennis Cooper is the author of the George Miles Cycle of five novels, of which Closer is the first. He is also the author of My Loose Thread , The Sluts , God Jr. , and The Marbled Swarm . Cooper’s other works include story collections, poetry, and the essay collection Smothered in Hugs . He divides his time between Los Angeles and Paris.