Dirt - Softcover

Vann, David

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0062121073 ISBN 13: 9780062121073

Publisher: Harper Perennial, 2013

Synopsis

New York Times Editor's Choice

Twenty-two-year-old Galen lives with his emotionally dependent mother in a secluded house outside Sacramento, surviving on the family's trust fund--money that his aunt, Helen, and seventeen-year-old cousin, Jennifer, are determined to get their hands on. A New Age believer who considers himself an old soul, Galen yearns for transformation but is powerless to stop the manic binges that overtake him. He dreams of shedding his clinging mother and is obsessed with thoughts of the boldly flirtatious Jennifer. But when the family takes a trip to a cabin in the Sierras, Galen discovers just how far he will go to attain the transcendence he craves.

About this title

Review:

"There's a lot of humor here, of a very dark vein. And Vann, a Guggenheim fellow, excels at sly truths"--Boston Globe

"Brilliant narrative. . . . This is a novel of violence, destruction and ruin. There is no salvation. And yet Mr. Vann's soaring writing carries it forward-a reminder of the beauty that can grace even the beastliest things."--The Economist

"His language is sharply funny, even as his characters enact a tragedy of Greek proportions."--The New Yorker

"The book is wonderfully twisted, but a sinister humor keeps things from getting too bleak. What begins as a literary family drama turns slowly into a heady horror story, part Stephen King and part Immanuel Kant."--The Daily Beast

"Brave and brilliant. . . . Dirt is showing us something unexpected, and unexpectedly stunning . . . Vann's details here, as always, are pitch-perfect."--San Francisco Chronicle

"Haunting."--Financial Times

"Vann has a remarkable gift for capturing the harsh realities of a family held together by hate and violence. Riveting and impossible to put down."--Library Journal (starred review)

"Harrowing. . . . Vann, a professor at UC San Francisco, is often compared to Cormac McCarthy; he exerts a powerful grip here, as Galen learns how far he's willing to go to get free."--San Jose Mercury News

"Vann truly is brave. . . . there is no denying we emerge indelibly affected."--Philadelphia Inquirer

"Searing. . . . Vann has an extravagantly literary sensibility, and his novel is full of echoes: One thinks of the stately inevitability of classical tragedy, of Chekhov's lost souls, of the hallucinatory quality of Faulkner's rural fantasia, and of Stephen King's depictions of an unraveling mind."--Washington Post Book World

Book Description:

A devastating new novel from one of the most exciting and acclaimed American writers

About this edition

• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 0062121073
• ISBN 13: 9780062121073
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 272