Scary Kisses - Softcover

Gooch, Brad

3.13

47 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1585674265 ISBN 13: 9781585674268

Publisher: The Overlook Press, 2003

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From the lost generation of Andy Warhol's New York to the cocaine-fueled runways of the top fashion houses of Paris and Milan, Scary Kisses captures the tenderness and cruelty of the beautiful people circa 1980, living behind the pages of Vogue.

As a portrait of this time and this place, Scary Kisses shares a place with Bright Lights, Big City, Slaves of New York, and The Bonfire of the Vanities as a classic portrait of the seductive pull of Manhattan nightlife. The story of centers on a menage � trois that drifts listlessly into a spiral of cynicism and nihilistic gratification via sex and drugs. With a raw, voyeuristic eye for detail, Brad Gooch zooms the reader in to the downtown New York scene and the decadent nightlife of the modeling world. His precise, snapshot prose re-creates a time unlike any other, and characters that flash with a stark, bright realism.

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About the Author:

Brad Gooch is the author of the acclaimed biography of Frank O'Hara, City Poet, as well as Flannery: A Life of Flannery O'Connor, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in Biography, along with other nonfiction and three novels. The recipient of National Endowment for the Humanities and Guggenheim fellowships, he earned his Ph.D. at Columbia University and is Professor of English at William Paterson University in New Jersey. He lives in New York City.

From Publishers Weekly:

Fashion models may go to plastic surgeons, but it would take a heart surgeon to breathe some life into the narcissistic, yuppie mannequins who stumble zombie-like through this semi-pornographic romp. The prose style might be called mod-minimalist, and the trite dialogue is typeset like a film script (a hint to Hollywood?), which doesn't help matters at all. The plot could be loosely summarized as boy loses girl, boy (very briefly) gets boy, boy wins back girl from the second boy. The action hops from New York's East and West Villages to Paris and Milan, then returns to the Big Apple where Sister Ruth Theresa's psychotherapy sessions help Lucy fall back into the arms of handsome young Todd, thus saving him from a lonely, glitzy lifestyle. Short-story writer Gooch ( Jailbait ) has been a fashion model himself, yet he lacks the least bit of critical distance or humor to animate this self-styled scoop on the fast-track world of male modeling with its drugs, sex and glitter. 50,000 first printing; $50,000 ad/promo.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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