Need

by Nik Cohn

Nik Cohn is not the kind of novelist who is content to write about the merely downtrodden. In his new novel, Need, the belly dancers also deliver Verse-O-Grams; the sad sack has a shoe fetish and dreams of making his fortune as topless car-wash magnate; and even the psychic moonlights running a bizarre pet shop. Of course, the novel is set in New York City, where all this and more is possible, really. There's something a little hallucinatory about Need, as if the strange characters and the even stranger circumstances they find themselves in were all part of a troubling dream one can't quite wake from. Gritty as the urban landscape he details, Nik Cohn's language is the engine that keeps this novel running to the very end.

Genres: Fiction

Paperback

First published February 18, 1997

About the author

Cohn is considered by some critics to be a father of rock criticism, thanks to his time on The Observer's early rock column entitled The Brief and his first major book Awopbopaloobop Alopbamboom, first published in 1969. Cohn has since published articles, novels and music books regularly.

Reviews

[James E. Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written in an almost hallucinatory style, the book is interesting but frustrating if you are expecting a typical narrative. Good characterization and use of flashbacks, etc. Quite enjoyable.

[Jim Bostjancic · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not lots happening from an action angle, but the private detective vibe., cool street prose "that petty, five-timing, car-washing piece of nothing" and introspective desperado's, beckon me into considering checking out some of his other work.