WHAT IS LOVE?
In the game of love, there are winners and losers. In THE LOSERS' CLUB, Richard Perez tries to answer the eternal question. Set in downtown New York City, THE LOSERS' CLUB tells the story of Martin Sierra, an unlucky writer addicted to the personals. His journey brings us into the East Village, pre-9/11—and in contact with Nikki, his dream woman, who remains unattainable romantically yet becomes his friend and confidant during his illuminating misadventures. Populated with characters and surprises few will ever forget, this energetic, comic novel is as much about a generation (we won't say "X") as it is about a specific time and place.
"THE LOSERS' CLUB is a vibrant and hopeful anthem for all of us 'losers' who choose not to wallow (for too long!) in our despair and who find the will to keep searching."—Heather Lowcock, Joseph-Beth Booksellers, Lexington KY*
BOOK SENSE 76 TOP TEN PICK!*
"Richard Perez is a clear-eyed chronicler of the New York club scene and a compassionate observer of the lives lived in the carnival at the center of the world. He is a sociologist and a historian, telling the truth about the way we live now. He's funny, honest, and compassionate. We can only hope that THE LOSERS' CLUB is but the first act in Richard Perez's Human Comedy." John Dufresne, author: LOUISIANA POWER & LIGHT, LOVE WARPS THE MIND A LITTLE
"THE LOSERS' CLUB evokes a real and genuine sense of place the world of the East Village and people single, young and desperate written with zest, energy and enthusiasm." Tama Janowitz, author: SLAVES OF NEW YORK
"Reading Richard Perez's THE LOSERS' CLUB was a revelation to me. It is a novel by turns funny, poignant, and illuminating, perfect in its portraits of both the East Village scene of the mid-90s and the often desperate personal ads subculture in New York City. Yet it is much more than a fictionalized social document. Beneath Perez's dead-on descriptions of downtown clubs and bars and of the people who patronized them is a sense of deep longing for what has been lost and for what may never be had." Henry Flesh, Lambda Literary Award-winning author of MICHAEL and MASSAGE
"Richard Perez's THE LOSERS' CLUB moves fast without blurring, and documents New York City in all its self-invented variety: kitsch/retro bars and cafes, goth vampires, dyke rock bands, desperately clever personal ads, the endless cruise for a parking space, and loneliness so relentless its victims wind up feeling stillborn. In its quicksilver way, Perez's novel manages to be cheerful, bleak, and edgy all at once." John Vernon, author: A BOOK OF REASONS, PETER DOYLE
"Irrepressibly exuberant despite the pessimism and cynicism of youth, this first novel shows us a New York of the 1990's as vividly as Jay McInerney's BRIGHT LIGHTS, BIG CITY did the New York of the 1980s. Funny and heart-wrenching, THE LOSERS' CLUB is a winner." Ruth Doan MacDougall, author: ONE MINUS ONE, THE LILTING HOUSE
"This is a story of youth, very well told, and it dwells in the mind long after a reader finishes it." Joanne Greenberg, author: I NEVER PROMISED YOU A ROSE GARDEN
"The prose in Richard Perez's first novel is charged with downtown energy. Edgy, mordant, sharply observed, The Losers' Club is funny and endearing and wisely not so hip as to avoid a good grab for your heart." Marcie Hershman, author: SAFE IN AMERICA, TALES OF THE MASTER RACE
"Each year brings new and talented young writers to the literary scene. This year Rich Perez is one of them." Shirley Ann Grau, author: THE KEEPERS OF THE HOUSE, Pulitzer Prize Winner
"Richard Perez has the ears of the angels lend him yours." Barry Gifford, author, poet, screenwriter: WILD AT HEART, LOST HIGHWAY
