Pink - Softcover

Van Sant, Gus

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0571191061 ISBN 13: 9780571191062

Publisher: Faber and Faber, 1997

Synopsis

A first novel, by the film-maker Gus Van Sant. It tells the story of a maker of "infomercials" who lives in the Pacific Northwest, and his close encounters with two young men. He is attracted by their strange aura, especially as one of them reminds him of a young star who died of a drug overdose.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

In the town of Sasquatch, Oregon, Spunky Davis, middle-aged maker of infomercials, is trying to find his next assignment, finish the screenplay that he hopes will bring him Hollywood glory, and deal with the death of his friend and favorite infomercial presenter, the teen idol Felix Arroyo. Enter two young aspiring filmmakers, Jack and Matt, whom Spunky finds strangely familiar - especially as Jack bears an uncanny resemblance to the late Felix. But Jack and Matt are not what they appear to be; they are messengers from a dimension beyond time known as Pink, and they invite Spunky to join them on their voyage of transcendence and recovery. Using every means the printed page offers to tell his tale - a delirious array of voices signified by different typefaces, a flip cartoon that animates the novel's action, footnotes, and drawings - Gus Van Sant turns the novel into an explosively visual experience, a captivating combination of texture and text.

From the Inside Flap:

Gus Van Sant goes from auteur to author in an brilliant, inventive, and endlessly entertaining first novel that reads like a Warholian mix of Kurt Vonnegut and Tom Robbins.
In the town of Sasquatch, Oregon, Spunky Davis, middle-aged maker of infomercials, is trying to find his next assignment, finish the screenplay that he hopes will bring him Hollywood glory, and deal with the death of his friend and favorite infomercial presenter, teen idol Felix Arroyo. Enter two young aspiring filmmakers, Jack and Matt, whom Spunky finds strangely familiar--especially as Jack bears an uncanny resemblance to the late Felix. But Jack and Matt are not what they appear to be; they are messengers from a dimension beyond time known as Pink, and they invite Spunky to join them on their voyage of transcendence and recovery.
Using a delirious array of voices signified by different typefaces, a flip cartoon that animates the novel's action, footnotes and line drawings, Gus Van Sant turns the novel into an explosively visual experience, a captivating combination of texture and text. As original and involving as any of Van Sant's films, "Pink is both a hip, comic deconstruction of our image-obsessed culture and a genuinely tender story on the classic themes of love, time, and loss.

About this edition

• Publisher: Faber and Faber
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0571191061
• ISBN 13: 9780571191062
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 272