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New York Graphic
A delicious, darkly comic work of new urban noir from an original new literary talent.
Meet Virgil Strauss, a physically and emotionally unkempt yet somehow appealing tabloid photographer whose passion is bearing photographic witness--à la Weegee--to the obscene, malevolent and sanguine viscera of New York culture.
To his disapppointment and defeat, The New York Graphic --the city's most renowned shock-based tabloid daily--has routinely rejected Virgil's work. But when Virgil and his friend Larry Onions rip off a local church, he gets the picture of a lifetime, a job at the Graphic , and a generous measure of trouble, leading to serious indiscretions that include (but aren't limited to): grave robbing, straining his neighbor's dog's feces for an inadvertently consumed diamond, widely circulating the work of a renowned "art terrorist," and being an FBI informant in a serial bombing case. Helping Virgil through his hard times is Marcy, HIV-positive porn-star girlfriend, whose wispy, hardened, tragic strength brings tenderness and humanity to Virgil's cold-blooded reality.
New York Graphic is a winningly fresh contribution to the noir alternately hilarious, vulgar, touching, seriously disturbed--and a delightfully heady reading.
Meet Virgil Strauss, a physically and emotionally unkempt yet somehow appealing tabloid photographer whose passion is bearing photographic witness--à la Weegee--to the obscene, malevolent and sanguine viscera of New York culture.
To his disapppointment and defeat, The New York Graphic --the city's most renowned shock-based tabloid daily--has routinely rejected Virgil's work. But when Virgil and his friend Larry Onions rip off a local church, he gets the picture of a lifetime, a job at the Graphic , and a generous measure of trouble, leading to serious indiscretions that include (but aren't limited to): grave robbing, straining his neighbor's dog's feces for an inadvertently consumed diamond, widely circulating the work of a renowned "art terrorist," and being an FBI informant in a serial bombing case. Helping Virgil through his hard times is Marcy, HIV-positive porn-star girlfriend, whose wispy, hardened, tragic strength brings tenderness and humanity to Virgil's cold-blooded reality.
New York Graphic is a winningly fresh contribution to the noir alternately hilarious, vulgar, touching, seriously disturbed--and a delightfully heady reading.
- GenresFiction
288 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1998
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
September 2, 2016
Big WeeGee Fan. Read it if you can't help but buy "GLOBE" magazine at least once a year! I've read New York Graphic more than twice, and I still laugh every time. Absolute favorite line:
-- 'I am Vishnu the destroyer.'
'Vishnu isn'ta destroyer.'
'What?'
'In Hindu mythology Shiva is the destroyer.'
'So what's Vishnu?'
'A sort of holistic oneness type of god, I think.'
'Damn.'
The phone went dead.
'Who was it?' asked Dieter.
'Vishnu Jones.' --
HA! Seriously, HA!
-- 'I am Vishnu the destroyer.'
'Vishnu isn'ta destroyer.'
'What?'
'In Hindu mythology Shiva is the destroyer.'
'So what's Vishnu?'
'A sort of holistic oneness type of god, I think.'
'Damn.'
The phone went dead.
'Who was it?' asked Dieter.
'Vishnu Jones.' --
HA! Seriously, HA!
July 26, 2020
What starts as a fun, guilty pleasure about a tawdry photographer and part time criminal (or is it the other way around) devolves quickly into a bleak descent into depressing characters and unrealistic capers. Another annoyance is how the author keeps using British words for a story set in New York. I wanted something more like Nightcrawler and this didn't come close.
November 2, 2016
Without giving anything away, what began as a solid take on New York lowlife (a genre I know well from first hand experience back in the 60s and 70s - see my graphic novel Giraffes in my Hair: A Rock'n'Roll Life, if you'll excuse the plug) and an interesting study of a character who prowls the New York netherworld seeking to photograph all things gruesome and gory for a lurid tabloid, seems to lose its original raison d'etre along the way and loses its charm with it. I also felt let down by the ending.
Seems to be the author's only book.
Seems to be the author's only book.
January 3, 2014
Gritty characters, no happy ending, just my cup of tea
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews