Ten Thousand Saints - Softcover

Henderson, Eleanor

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0062021214 ISBN 13: 9780062021212

Publisher: Ecco Press, 2012

Synopsis

"Eleanor Henderson is in possession of an enormous talent which she has matched up with skill, ambition, and a fierce imagination. The resulting novel, Ten Thousand Saints, is the best thing I've read in a long time."
--Ann Patchett, bestselling author of Bel Canto and State of Wonder

A sweeping, multigenerational drama, set against the backdrop of the raw, roaring New York City during the late 1980s, Ten Thousand Saints triumphantly heralds the arrival a remarkable new writer. Eleanor Henderson makes a truly stunning debut with a novel that is part coming of age, part coming to terms, immediately joining the ranks of The Emperor's Children by Claire Messud and Jonathan Lethem's The Fortress of Solitude. Adoption, teen pregnancy, drugs, hardcore punk rock, the unbridled optimism and reckless stupidity of the young--and old--are all major elements in this heart-aching tale of the son of diehard hippies and his strange odyssey through the extremes of late 20th century youth culture.

About this title

Product Description:

Paperback

Review:

"Henderson's novel recalls all the sweat and fury of coming of age. . . It's also a beautifully rendered study of devotion-to a cause, a religion, a scene, and one's own family-and all the conflict and sacrifice that devotion entails."--The Millions

"Absorbing...Tone is just one element Henderson balances well.... She also packs her coming-of-age story with grit and a generational wallop.... In this naturalistic and assured novel, Henderson crafts a satisfying structure...psychological astuteness is a key pleasure of Ten Thousand Saints."--Cleveland Plain Dealer

"Highbrow/Brilliant: All the all-star sentences in Eleanor Henderson's punk-rock-teen novel Ten Thousand Saints."--New York Magazine Approval Matrix

"[Henderson] has a perfect ear for conversation between siblings; the way a lazy spat can turn into a grudging moment of closeness. And the euphoria of the straight edge movement that Jude and Johnny embrace suffuses the novel with a reckless, glib joy...a bittersweet, lovely book."--NPR.org

"Eleanor Henderson is in possession of an enormous talent which she has matched up with skill, ambition, and a fierce imagination. The resulting novel, TEN THOUSAND SAINTS, is the best thing I've read in a long time. "--Ann Patchett, bestselling author of Bel Canto and State of Wonder

"Ten Thousand Saints is a whirling dervish of a first novel--a planet, a universe, a trip. As wild as that may sound, wonder of wonders, the book is also carefully and lovingly created... [Henderson] writes with great compassion but does not flinch"--Los Angeles Times

"Proudly unsentimental...Henderson zeroes in on the essentially malleable nature of these teenagers without squashing them into an indistinguishable mass..., Henderson parcels out its history in tantalizing images and snatches of conversations, holding back where her protagonists might themselves miss the significance of their surroundings."--The Onion AV Club

"I loved TEN THOUSAND SAINTS; again and again I was stopped cold by beautiful chapter-ending sentences. I remember this Manhattan, the Sunday matinees at CB's, the rage over Yuppies colonizing the East Village. "--Dean Wareham, lead singer of Galaxie 500 and Luna, author of BLACK POSTCARDS

"Henderson's debut novel bursts out of the gate with all of the drive and sensory assault of the punk music that infuses it.... It's an auspicious debut, and gives us reason to hope that Henderson will mature as satisfyingly as her subjects do."--Boston Globe

"[An] empathetic novel of wayward youth and their wayward parents...Henderson proves herself to be an expert ethnographer; her detail work is phenomenal....characterizations demonstrate Henderson's greatest skill. Even the ones who receive comparatively little stage time are always precisely defined... Henderson's affection for [the characters] is palpable."--Washington Post

About this edition

• Publisher: Ecco Press
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0062021214
• ISBN 13: 9780062021212
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 416