Spidertown

Abraham Rodriguez Jr.

ISBN 10: 1562828452 / ISBN 13: 9781562828455

Published by Hyperion, New York, 1993

About this Item

First Edition, Rodriguez's first novel tells the story of Miguel, a young Puerto Rican dealer living in the South Bronx. Very Good, edge wear throughout, rubbing, and fading to lettering. Near Fine jacket, lightly rubbed. 8vo. Quarter black cloth over black paper boards with silver gilt lettering to spine.

Seller Inventory # 550

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Spidertown
• Publisher: Hyperion, New York
• Publication Date: 1993
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1562828452
• ISBN 13: 9781562828455
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Jacket photograph: Jerry Bauer. Jacket Design by Victor Weaver
• Edition: First Edition, Stated.
• Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included
• Seller catalogs:
  • Literature

About this title

Synopsis

Miguel is riding high on the streets of the Bronx in his Baby, a souped-up dream-mobile purchased for him by the man, Spider: mentor, friend, and crack kingpin. Miguel is just a runner, not a dealer; he thinks he can keep his life as an independent operator with just one foot in the door of a world where teenagers run million-dollar empires. With his crashpad roommate Firebug, arsonist extraordinaire, Miguel tries to fit lifetimes of partying, casual sex, and high times into a few short years. It is only when he falls deeply in love with the beautiful and practical-minded Cristalena that the shallowness and imminent danger of this world come crashing home to him.

From the Back Cover

Sixteen-year-old Puerto Rican Miguel leads a crazy high life in his desperately poor Bronx neighbourhood. Reaping the outrageous rewards of apprenticeship to kingpin crack dealer Spider, Miguel and his arsonist friend, Firebug, exist in a frenetic whirl of partying and casual sex that skirts perilously close to the edge. It is only when Miguel falls deeply in love with a 'straight' girl, Cristalena, that he is forced to confront the dangerous realities of his world...

Born and raised in the South Bronx, Abraham Rodriguez chronicles the lives of the foot soldiers of the drugs world with gritty authenticity. 'Spidertown' marks the debut of a major new voice in contemporary fiction.

'Rodriguez, with his youthful verve, his high-voltage style, has seized on a truth of our times. A scary, sexy, exuberant first novel... a crackling good read.'
LOS ANGELES TIMES

'On barren, lawless streets, where the shadows are enlivened by the curling blue flame inside a glass pipe-bowl, it is possible to forget that the lurking figures – the dealers, the runners, the crackheads – are often children. It is an achievement of 'Spidertown', a powerful first novel, to remind us. Mr Rodriguez has given us a redemptive and absorbing work.'
NEW YORK TIMES

'Spoken with a voice and voices so authentic you hear them, with characters so compellingly portrayed that you see them, and a narrative so gripping that you live it. It's 'West Side Story' with a soundtrack of gunfire.'
CHICAGO NEW CITY