Dennis Cooper: My Loose Thread

I am very conscious with what I write..comments on books, theatre, opera etc etc, that I almost always seem to be very passionate about it, saying that the works are remarkable, powerful, extraordinary and at times I wonder if this is a bit intellectually sloppy and self indulgent...how can everything be fantastic. But I stand by these as they are what I genuinely think and I hope that I manage to convey at least some reasons for my enthusiasm.

This book is a case in point...again. It is stunningly powerful, bleak, tragic ( and I use that word advisedly) about a deeply disturbed American High Schooler. When I started it, I was finding it very confusing in the way it was written. I was losing track of who was speaking, we seemed to move from place to place very bafflingly, time seemed to change and I thought that I would certainly need to re read it to fully understand it; that the fault was mine. However as it went on I realised that this was deliberate and that this sense of confusion and turmoil was a device as we were the being made to see the world depicted through the eyes of the protagonist and that the world to him was utterly baffling, meaningless and confusing.

There are very strong reminds of Columbine ( it is directly referenced several times) as well as the parental killings by two brothers whose name I forget but will add later.

I found that as the book went on I beca,e more and more sympathetic to the main characters. I started off by feeling quite coldly distant from them yet by the end felt enormous pity. And not least as I wonder how many young people there are out there in that sort of turmoil that non-understanding adults are either ignoring or just trying to deal with by meaningless conversations or medication.

The isolation of the central character is painfully clearly observed and the whole book has been grimly. Revelatory to me. I do not know the author but am fascinated to catch up on his other work.