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

Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Grove Press, Black Cat
Published: 07/21/2005
ISBN: 9780802170118
Pages: 176
Weight: 0.39lbs
Size: 7.26h x 4.98w x 0.47d

Review Citations: Library Journal Prepub Alert 04/15/2005 pg. 64
Kirkus Reviews 05/15/2005 pg. 556
Publishers Weekly 05/16/2005 pg. 34
Library Journal 06/01/2005 pg. 114
Booklist 07/01/2005 pg. 1896
Entertainment Weekly 08/12/2005 pg. 82
New York Times 09/11/2005 pg. 27