{"product_id":"9780374283247","title":"Vernon Subutex 1 : A Novel","description":"\u003cstrong\u003eVernon Subutex 1\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor(s): Virginie Despentes\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"Virginie Despentes's \u003ci\u003eVernon Subutex\u003c\/i\u003e trilogy is the zeitgeistiest thing I ever read. Everything about it is contemporary, right down to the fearless woman author who doesn't think of herself as a feminist and gives an impression at least in interviews of habitually killing rapists . . . [It] has dupes and assholes and racists and the people they hate and a stunning diversity of internal monologues and trans true love. Like the last decade, it searches for a happy ending that isn’t merely personal and can’t find it . . . These novels with their depth and detail kick TV's sorry ass.\" —Nell Zink, \u003ci\u003eBustle\u003c\/i\u003e, \"The Best Books Of The 2010s\"  \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFrom the provocative writer and filmmaker Virginie Despentes comes volume one of her acclaimed trilogy of novels, \u003ci\u003eVernon Subutex\u003c\/i\u003e—short-listed for the Man Booker International Prize. But who is Vernon Subutex?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eVernon Subutex was once the proprietor of Revolver, an infamous music shop in Paris, where his name was legend throughout Paris. By the 2000s, however, with the arrival of the internet and the decline in CD and vinyl sales, his shop is struggling, like so many others. When it closes, Subutex finds himself with nowhere to go and nothing to do. Before long, his savings are gone, and when the mysterious rock star who had been covering his rent suddenly drops dead of a drug overdose, Subutex finds himself launched on an epic saga of couch-surfing, boozing, and coke-snorting before finally winding up homeless. Just as he resigns himself to life as a panhandler, a throwaway comment he once made on Facebook takes the internet by storm.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe word is out: Subutex is lugging around a bunch of VHS tapes shot by that same dead rock musician—his last recordings on this earth. Soon a crowd of wild characters, from screen writers to social media groupies, from porn stars to failed musicians to random misfits, are hot on Vernon's trail . . . but Vernon is none the wiser.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eReview(s):\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Virginie Despentes' \u003ci\u003eVernon Subutex\u003c\/i\u003e Trilogy is \u003cb\u003ethe zeitgeistiest thing I ever read\u003c\/b\u003e. Everything about it is contemporary, right down to the fearless woman author who doesn't think of herself as a feminist and gives an impression at least in interviews of habitually killing rapists. . . \u003cb\u003eI tore through these books the minute they were published, as if they were one of those TV series everybody loves so much. These novels with their depth and detail kick TV's sorry ass.\u003c\/b\u003e\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Nell Zink, \u003ci\u003eBustle\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"With\u003ci\u003e Vernon Subutex\u003c\/i\u003e,\u003cb\u003e a sprawling, scintillating panorama of contemporary Paris\u003c\/b\u003e, [Despentes] has produced \u003cb\u003ea bona fide magnum opus\u003c\/b\u003e . . . \u003cb\u003edoing for Paris what Joyce did for Dublin\u003c\/b\u003e.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Sam Sacks, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe Wall Street Journal\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Despentes’s most recent work, \u003ci\u003eThe Vernon Subutex\u003c\/i\u003e trilogy, which began appearing in 2015, catapulted her into the high echelons of the literary establishment . . . The series is a departure from her pulp writing, \u003cb\u003ea sprawling Parisian epic à la Zola, focused as much on class as on sex\u003c\/b\u003e . . . Taken as a whole, \u003cb\u003ethe trilogy is a rather extraordinary act of creation and destruction, a realistic Paris evoked, transformed, and torn apart.\u003c\/b\u003e\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—\u003c\/b\u003eNadja Spiegelman, \u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eNew York Review of Books\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"\u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eVernon Subutex 1\u003c\/i\u003e, written by Virginie Despentes and translated from French by Frank Wynne, is the kind of match that is so great it won’t occur to readers that these two entities — author and translator — might have ever been apart. In fact, \u003cb\u003etheir prose is so powerful, and so perfect, that we forget we’re even reading. Opening up \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eVernon Subutex 1\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003e is more like stepping inside a thrilling, pulsing party and getting instantly mesmerized by the whirling couple at the center of the crowd.\u003c\/b\u003e\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Jennifer Croft, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe Lost Angeles Review of Books\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"Like HBO’s \u003ci\u003eSuccession\u003c\/i\u003e, the book revolves around an ensemble of horrible people\u003c\/b\u003e . . .[Despentes] writes wickedly about people watching their privilege evaporate in real time and reacting with the full range of human ugliness . . . \u003cb\u003eWhat fun!\u003c\/b\u003e\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Molly Young, \u003ci\u003eVulture  \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Virginie Despentes is \u003cb\u003ea true original, a punk-rock George Eliot\u003c\/b\u003e with a keen taste for the pitiable innards of her characters: \u003cb\u003eno one else has her slyly penetrating eye, her spiky sense of humor, her razor wit\u003c\/b\u003e that cuts like wire through the accumulated crud of our age's default thought patterns.  In her masterful hands,\u003ci\u003eVernon Subutex\u003c\/i\u003e becomes a droll, hilarious, insightful record of our unfortunate times.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Alexandra Kleeman, author of \u003ci\u003eYou Too Can Have a Body Like Mine\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"[A] searing social satire and biting portrait of contemporary France . . . Despentes’s timely novel is both arch and political without being too obvious that it’s either. \u003cb\u003eThis is a rollicking, brilliant send-up of masculinity, politics, and rock ’n’ roll.\u003c\/b\u003e\"\u003cbr\u003e—\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Masterly . . . Despentes is often described as\u003cb\u003e a 'rock and roll' Balzac\u003c\/b\u003e . . . She also resembles, by turns, William Gibson, George Eliot and \u003cb\u003eMichel Houellebecq, with a sunnier attitude.\u003c\/b\u003e\"\u003cbr\u003e—\u003cb\u003eChris Kraus\u003c\/b\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Times Literary Supplement\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Cool, plentiful, and absolute genius.\u003cb\u003e Virginie Despentes has a license to \u003ci\u003eill\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e. \u003ci\u003eVernon Subutex\u003c\/i\u003e is one of the best books of this decade.\"\u003cbr\u003e—Alex Gilvarry, author of\u003ci\u003e Eastman Was Here\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\"\u003cb\u003eA \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003efoul-mouthed, drug-fueled, searing satire of modern France\u003c\/b\u003e . . . this novel is not for the faint of heart. But those who love a good skewering, admire Michel Houellebecq’s writing, or wished Jennifer Egan’s \u003ci\u003eA Visit from the Goon Squad \u003c\/i\u003e(2010) was darker and dirtier will love it.\"\u003cbr\u003e—Kathy Sexton, \u003ci\u003eBooklist\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Despentes effortlessly slips in and out of these various lives, deftly switching styles each time (one chapter is as harsh as Bukowski, another as precise as Ernaux), and in so doing creates \u003cb\u003ea new Comédie humaine depicting the various social milieux of the early twenty-first century\u003c\/b\u003e.\"\u003cbr\u003e—Jeffrey Zuckerman, \u003ci\u003eWorld Literature Today\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"[Vernon Subutex 1 is] \u003cb\u003ea fantastic and disconcerting look at the outskirts of the music industry, what happens when society changes for the worst, and the legacies artists leave behind.\u003c\/b\u003e It's a fascinating, immersive work of fiction — and there’s more on the way.\"\u003cbr\u003e—\u003ci\u003eVol. 1 Brooklyn\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Reads like Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia mashed with Don Quixote and set in contemporary Paris . . .  the writing is energetic, delving, and occasionally lovely . . . \u003cb\u003eDespentes has a sharp eye fixed on [society's] transformation, and she transcribes it acutely\u003c\/b\u003e.\"\u003cbr\u003e—Katharine Coldiron, \u003ci\u003eThe Arts Fuse\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\"\u003c\/i\u003eThe \u003ci\u003eVernon Subutex\u003c\/i\u003e trilogy is about a social and financial drop, the decline of a character into a world of drugs and music, porn stars, disillusionment. \u003cb\u003eA satirical vivid journey rooted in the 90s, the result is funny and tragic, a wild ride.\u003c\/b\u003e\"\u003cbr\u003e—\u003ci\u003elargehearted boy\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Like Zola in his day, Despentes critiques the depredations of a gilded age ... \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eVernon Subutex \u003c\/i\u003eis a great novel of the failures of neo-liberalism\u003c\/b\u003e ... It has a hurried, helter-skelter charm ... In the end, \u003ci\u003eVernon Subutex\u003c\/i\u003e seems to hold fast to the radical potential of the 1960s and 70s, even as it is alive to the irony that its middle-aged characters, through the world they built, have done so much to undermine these ways of being.\"\u003cbr\u003e—Dorian Stuber, \u003ci\u003eThree Percent\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eISBN:  9780374283247\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e ","brand":"FSG Originals","offers":[{"title":"Paperback \/ softback","offer_id":40708920737998,"sku":"9780374283247","price":16.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0600\/7029\/7806\/products\/getimage_ba737844-c796-4e57-ab3d-f1b6d2f1fb76.jpg?v=1640668398","url":"https:\/\/pickwickbookshop.com\/products\/9780374283247","provider":"Pickwick Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}