THE LAUGHING MONSTERS - Scarce Fine Copy of The First Hardcover Edition/First Printing: Signed by Denis Johnson - SIGNED ON THE HALF-TITLE PAGE

Johnson, Denis

ISBN 10: 0374280592 / ISBN 13: 9780374280598

Published by New York City, NY: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2014, 2014

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Description:

1st Printing. Signed. 228 pages. Published in 2014. The author's eighth novel and eleventh work of fiction. Now considered a contemporary classic. The First Hardcover Edition. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions. Published in a small and limited first print run as a hardcover original only. The First Edition is now scarce. Presents Denis Johnson's "The Laughing Monsters". What fuels the demands and mysteries of literature. "The wreckage is what essential writers particularize, and Denis Johnson's interests have always been in wreckage, both individual and universal. Addresses the vanishing present, a giddy trickle-down of global exploitation and hubris, the farcical exploits of cold dudes in a hard land" (The New York Times Book Review). "It would be hard to find a better American writer, at the level of the sentence, than Johnson" (Boston Globe). Denis Johnson died on May 24, 2017, and despite a fairly long and brilliant career, it is a premature loss. An absolute "must-have" title for Denis Johnson collectors. This copy is very boldly and beautifully signed in black pen on the half-title page by Denis Johnson. It is signed directly on the page itself, not on a tipped-in page, as copies available online are. This title is a contemporary classic. This is one of few such signed copies of the First Hardcover Edition/First Printing still available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright. Please note: Copies available online have serious flaws, are subsequent printings, or are remainder-marked. This is surely an accessible and lovely alternative. A scarce signed copy thus. Winner of the National Book Award in 2007 and Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2008 for "Tree of Smoke". Denis Johnson's "Jesus' Son" was selected by the panel of New York Times writers, critics, and editors as one of the Top 20 most important works of American fiction of the last 25 years. One of the greatest American writers of our time. A fine collectible copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER DENIS JOHNSON TITLES IN OUR CATALOG) ISBN 0374280592. Seller Inventory # 19163

About this title:

Synopsis:

Denis Johnson's New York Times bestseller, The Laughing Monsters, is a high-suspense tale of kaleidoscoping loyalties in the post-9/11 world that shows one of our great novelists at the top of his game.

Roland Nair calls himself Scandinavian but travels on a U.S. passport. After ten years' absence, he returns to Freetown, Sierra Leone, to reunite with his friend Michael Adriko. They once made a lot of money here during the country's civil war, and, curious to see whether good luck will strike twice in the same place, Nair has allowed himself to be drawn back to a region he considers hopeless.

Adriko is an African who styles himself a soldier of fortune and who claims to have served, at various times, the Ghanaian army, the Kuwaiti Emiri Guard, and the American Green Berets. He's probably broke now, but he remains, at thirty-six, as stirred by his own doubtful schemes as he was a decade ago.

Although Nair believes some kind of money-making plan lies at the back of it all, Adriko's stated reason for inviting his friend to Freetown is for Nair to meet Adriko's fiancée, a grad student from Colorado named Davidia. Together the three set out to visit Adriko's clan in the Uganda-Congo borderland―but each of these travelers is keeping secrets from the others. Their journey through a land abandoned by the future leads Nair, Adriko, and Davidia to meet themselves not in a new light, but rather in a new darkness.

Review:

An Amazon Best Book of the Month, November 2014: In this slim, fiery, full-speed-ahead novel, National Book Award winner Denis Johnson has created two of the more memorable characters I’ve read this year. Roland Nair and Michael Adriko are soldiers, spies, friends, liars. They’ve fought side by side, witnessed torture and death. They also once made stacks of illicit cash (diamonds), and now Michael has an outrageous plan to make more (uranium - maybe). Years after they last parted, they reunite in Freetown, Sierra Leone, with Michael’s innocent and stunning fiancé along for the adventure. Uncowed by the madness and deceptions swirling around them all, Michael is an absolutely shimmering fictional creation -- both an elegant trained killer, and a lovable man-child. He’s full of secrets (“more will be revealed” is a verbal tic) and dark wisdom (“people don’t quite understand - to be eaten pays a compliment to your power”). He’s also lustful, greedy, tormented, violent and, incongruously, hopeful and hilarious. What Michael really wants is love, and family -- the home he’s never had. As he drags his friend and fiancé deeper into West Africa, in a desperate search for his long-lost village, we root for Michael, even as this irresistible and infuriating child of war barrels exuberantly toward darkness. In a murky post-9/11 world, Johnson seems to be saying, trust and friendship are what we make them. –Neal Thompson

Bibliographic Details

Title: THE LAUGHING MONSTERS - Scarce Fine Copy of ...
Publisher: New York City, NY: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2014
Publication Date: 2014
Binding: Hardcover
Condition: As New
Dust Jacket Condition: As New
Signed: Signed by Author
Edition: 1st Edition.