Little New York Bastard: A Memoir - Softcover

Raskin, M. Dylan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1568582749 ISBN 13: 9781568582740

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing, 2003

Synopsis

Meet M. Dylan Raskin -- "MDR" to friends. At 22, he's the opposite of hip: a working-class college dropout who lives with his mother in Queens -- "Flushing-Stinking-Queens," to be precise. It's not that he doesn't like New York, exactly, it's just that lately he's felt more and more at odds with everything -- his family, his generation, his hometown, even himself. One day he gets fed up and decides to take his freedom on the road, setting off for Chicago in a quixotic attempt to turn his life around. Little New York Bastard is the story of an outsider for the ages, a mixed-up kid who knows what he wants in life but has no idea how to get it. Raskin's anger is palpable and his wounds are unabashedly raw, and readers will appreciate the immediacy and honesty of his story. Equal parts road story, coming-of-age memoir, and existential manifesto -- this debut is in the tradition of cult classics like Youth in Revolt and The Fuck Up.

About this title

About the Author

M. Dylan Raskin was born in Queens, New York.

From the Inside Flap

"Many books want to be the next CATCHER IN THE RYE. But LITTLE NEW YORK BASTARD actually has a claim. This is a spot-on depiction of what it s like to be young, kind of smart, and clueless in America." Neal Pollack, author of NEVER MIND THE POLLACKS

"Seldom in literature has a young man left home with a bigger baggage of Bad Attitude. Mr. Raskin dissects his generation with cool precision." C. D. Payne, author of YOUTH IN REVOLT

"The Holden Caulfield for the 21st century has arrived....[Raskin's] blisteringly angry take on life in the United States burns up the pages of this angst-driven road story....Think Denis Leary without the profanity but with all the black anger. A strikingly original and unforgettable narrative voice." Library Journal

Reviews

Angry, confused, malcontented young New Yorker, sick of all the hypocrisy and phoniness around him, decides to run away. Sound familiar? The twist: this Holden Caulfield is a real 22-year-old, a working-class product of Flushing, Queens. "I hate people" is how Raskin opens his book; he spends the rest of it getting into specifics, ranting about dirt bags, Nazis, degenerates, mindless drones, products of incest, Long Islanders, Ebonics speakers, cell phone gabbers and, worst of all, menu readers. Whenever this gets tiresome, Raskin invariably turns on a dime to reveal the hidden wounds that are causing his brain and (all-too-graphically) his bowels to "misfire": the recent deaths of his dog and his father. Raskin decides the cure is to "take his freedom" and go somewhere "inspiring." His choice is, absurdly enough, Chicago. A good portion of the book's entertainment value comes from anticipating how long it will take Raskin to discover, as he finally does, that he is "stuck in a city that seemed almost identical to New York, the place I'd run away from. It was all so sickening." Of course, this quixotic journey would never have been necessary if Raskin had just listened to his long-suffering, guilt-inducing mother, who reminds him "it's the singer, not the song." The same might be said of Raskin's memoir, which is the literary equivalent of karaoke. The song is Salinger's, but Raskin's rendition manages to partially compensate for what it lacks in sophistication and originality with an overabundance of attitude and passion.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1568582749
• ISBN 13: 9781568582740
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 288