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Long Lost Dog of It
June 5th, 2011. The streets of Athens are draped in a thick fog of tension. Hundreds of thousands of activists line the streets to protest the bankrupt government's austerity measures. Riot police patrol the crowd and set up barricades across key intersections.
A toothless vagrant scrambles to stay ahead of his past, a young couple struggles to piece their relationship back together, and a killer realizes too late that his number is up. Over the course of 48 hours, they will navigate a labyrinth of sex shows and dive bars, mob fronts and punk shows, fighting both their inner demons and the very real demon stalking the streets with a machine gun in his bag: a sociopathic hitman dressed to the nines and obsessed with JFK.
"If there's an antecedent [to Long Lost Dog Of It] in noir literature, it's David Goodis and his dreamy portrayals of losers and the low life, where the hardboiled stuff is punctuation, not purpose." --Nick Mamatas, THE BIG CLICK
"Kazepis' debut grabs Amerikani noir by the throat and drops it headfirst in Greece's streets, bars, small rooms, and strip clubs. Reeking of booze and cigarette smoke and jittery from too much caffeine, Long Lost Dog Of It is an elegant, violent, smutty, heart-wrenching novel stuffed with a bizarre sense of nostalgia and an international flair currently lacking in most contemporary crime fiction. With its language and sharp dialogue, LLDOI does for Athens what Woodrell did for the Ozarks. Yeah, this is a hell of an intimidating debut." --Gabino Iglesias, author of Gutmouth
"Michael Kazepis' Long Lost Dog of It is David Lynch meets Pulp Fiction meets government conspiracy fiction (think Three Days of the Condor), spiked with a certain dose of what-the-fuck-ness." --COMPLEX
"If you leave these pages with dust on your tongue and blood in your hair, don't say I didn't warn you. Long Lost Dog Of It sticks to you, like thighs on black vinyl." --Violet LeVoit, author of I Am Genghis Cum
"Honestly, the last book I recently read that triggered so many resonant echoes, and haunted me this hard, was Don DeLillo's White Noise. A very different book. But sensorially the closest." --John Skipp, FANGORIA
A toothless vagrant scrambles to stay ahead of his past, a young couple struggles to piece their relationship back together, and a killer realizes too late that his number is up. Over the course of 48 hours, they will navigate a labyrinth of sex shows and dive bars, mob fronts and punk shows, fighting both their inner demons and the very real demon stalking the streets with a machine gun in his bag: a sociopathic hitman dressed to the nines and obsessed with JFK.
"If there's an antecedent [to Long Lost Dog Of It] in noir literature, it's David Goodis and his dreamy portrayals of losers and the low life, where the hardboiled stuff is punctuation, not purpose." --Nick Mamatas, THE BIG CLICK
"Kazepis' debut grabs Amerikani noir by the throat and drops it headfirst in Greece's streets, bars, small rooms, and strip clubs. Reeking of booze and cigarette smoke and jittery from too much caffeine, Long Lost Dog Of It is an elegant, violent, smutty, heart-wrenching novel stuffed with a bizarre sense of nostalgia and an international flair currently lacking in most contemporary crime fiction. With its language and sharp dialogue, LLDOI does for Athens what Woodrell did for the Ozarks. Yeah, this is a hell of an intimidating debut." --Gabino Iglesias, author of Gutmouth
"Michael Kazepis' Long Lost Dog of It is David Lynch meets Pulp Fiction meets government conspiracy fiction (think Three Days of the Condor), spiked with a certain dose of what-the-fuck-ness." --COMPLEX
"If you leave these pages with dust on your tongue and blood in your hair, don't say I didn't warn you. Long Lost Dog Of It sticks to you, like thighs on black vinyl." --Violet LeVoit, author of I Am Genghis Cum
"Honestly, the last book I recently read that triggered so many resonant echoes, and haunted me this hard, was Don DeLillo's White Noise. A very different book. But sensorially the closest." --John Skipp, FANGORIA
250 pages, Paperback
First published April 2, 2014
2 people are currently reading
113 people want to read
About the author
Michael Kazepis
7 books30 followersMichael Kazepis has lived between Europe and the United States, having worked as a tradesman, tour guide, retail slave, delivery driver, bartender, teletext operator, hostel receptionist, and nightwatchman. He is an editor and typesetter, and the author of the books Long Lost Dog Of It and Gravity. His work on Veterans: Faces of World War II has been featured in The New Yorker and Vocativ. In 2014, he launched King Shot Press, a micropublisher of radical books. He lives in Portland, Oregon.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
April 27, 2016
Sort of dreamy, sort of noir, all elements working very well together. Details are never unnecessary or overdone. The flow of the story is effortless. It is hard for me to pin down exactly why this struck such a chord with me, but it did, in a big way. Great stuff, recommended.
June 14, 2015
This simply did not work for me. The narrative was too wandering and unfocused. I never knew exactly what was going on. Each chapter shows a different character. They're like little slices of life, showing a few moments of their lives, then moving on to someone else. I felt like the structure could have been better, placing the individual chapters closer together, maybe two or three at a time. When you get back to the first person you forget what was going on with them in the first place. It's hard to remember which name is attached to who making it more confusing. It's like the author didn't know which story he wanted to tell so he told them all. The story was just too unfocused and hard to follow.
Kazepis can write a good sentence there's no doubt about that. He injects a lot of heart and love into his words, it's just that he has a hard time telling an actual story with them. It never really goes anywhere and the different characters never interact until toward the end. In full disclosure I didn't actually make it to the end. I finally gave it up at seventy-five percent and had to put it down.
There's a lot of heart in this book that's nicely written, but meanders far too much, which ultimately caused me to lose interest.
Kazepis can write a good sentence there's no doubt about that. He injects a lot of heart and love into his words, it's just that he has a hard time telling an actual story with them. It never really goes anywhere and the different characters never interact until toward the end. In full disclosure I didn't actually make it to the end. I finally gave it up at seventy-five percent and had to put it down.
There's a lot of heart in this book that's nicely written, but meanders far too much, which ultimately caused me to lose interest.
November 25, 2014
This is a tricky book to talk about because it wanders around and has a bit of everything. Sometimes it feels like Bolanos, sometimes it feels like Le Samourai, sometimes it feels like a drugged out bad romance.
Probably it's all these things, and even a little more. Lots of voices and lives clashing and intersecting to the point that the novel becomes less about people and more about this city. Or, rather, how Greece shapes people.
--There's a hole in this city, somewhere. Maybe the whole country. The bottom of the continent. Feels like everything's swirling around a drain anyway. But at least there's still night, when Athens looks less ruined than it is, part of it like a lost Parisian arrondissement, the way people can appear more attractive under certain lights, orange softening bruises and scars, shadows muting them altogether. Even so, the crisis here is a very real thing, like chains anchoring everyone at the bottom, threatening to drown them if it sinks the rest of the way. While there's some of that romantic spirit of the old world, the nostalgia you find walking through its streets at night, there's none of the northern optimism. Everything here seems heavier. But that might not be a new aspect of the culture, might just be something the age of austerity has peeled back, exposing.--
You can't read passages like that and not get impressed or fall in love a little bit.
Another awesome Broken River Books novel, and a great debut.
Probably it's all these things, and even a little more. Lots of voices and lives clashing and intersecting to the point that the novel becomes less about people and more about this city. Or, rather, how Greece shapes people.
--There's a hole in this city, somewhere. Maybe the whole country. The bottom of the continent. Feels like everything's swirling around a drain anyway. But at least there's still night, when Athens looks less ruined than it is, part of it like a lost Parisian arrondissement, the way people can appear more attractive under certain lights, orange softening bruises and scars, shadows muting them altogether. Even so, the crisis here is a very real thing, like chains anchoring everyone at the bottom, threatening to drown them if it sinks the rest of the way. While there's some of that romantic spirit of the old world, the nostalgia you find walking through its streets at night, there's none of the northern optimism. Everything here seems heavier. But that might not be a new aspect of the culture, might just be something the age of austerity has peeled back, exposing.--
You can't read passages like that and not get impressed or fall in love a little bit.
Another awesome Broken River Books novel, and a great debut.
May 28, 2014
I wanted to jokingly leave a one-star review, but didn't have the heart to follow through. Kazepis' debut novel is a fucking masterpiece. The prose within the pages is beautiful. He delicately constructed a world I could immerse myself in and forget about reality for a few hours, and wrote a book that I could read in one sitting (something I haven't been able to do for A LONG TIME). He also managed to write a crime novel that I, a woman of color and self-proclaimed feminist, could understand and appreciate. LONG LOST DOG OF IT is dark and gritty and even a little funny at times. Surreal spins on political and social commentary without alienating someone who may not be an avid reader. It feels like watching a David Lynch film while listening to punk music with the lights off. It's like Cortazar in a leather jacket. Dark, sexy, and seemingly dangerous.
Most debut novels are like fragile little birds preparing to take flight for the first time, getting better and stronger the more they try. Kazepis grabbed LONG LOST DOG OF IT and jumped off that branch, immediately gliding and doing graceful somersaults in the air. His talent can only grow from here. That's why Kazepis is an asshole. Definitely keep an eye on this writer
Most debut novels are like fragile little birds preparing to take flight for the first time, getting better and stronger the more they try. Kazepis grabbed LONG LOST DOG OF IT and jumped off that branch, immediately gliding and doing graceful somersaults in the air. His talent can only grow from here. That's why Kazepis is an asshole. Definitely keep an eye on this writer
July 21, 2014
This is my biggest pleasant surprise of the year. I loved this. It's got a little bit of everything: Lesbian lovers drinking away their nights at punk shows and strip clubs, interntional hitmen, a disgraced cop turned vagrant, hallucinatory scenes of Greek mobsters smoking DMT, and all backdropped by massive austerity protests and absolute chaos. This is the Greece that you won't see on TV, the seedy underbelly, and it's a refreshing setting for one of my favorite noir novels I've read in a while. Add in the Kathleen Hanna references and the fact that the title is taken from a Black Flag song and what's not to like?
September 25, 2014
I don't think it's fair to call LONG LOST DOG OF IT noir, because it has greater ambition than just fitting into a single genre. After this reading, I like to think of Michael Kazepis as a punk rock Alfred Döblin. His prose is light on emotion, patient and contemplative, which draws tremendous portraits of Athens, a city Kazepis seems to deeply love. Atypical novel that defies categorization.
August 29, 2022
A vicious novel with enough punk in it to fill a crowd. This was the first book published by Broken River I ever bought years ago, and it’s the reason I fell in love with indie lit.
This one just feels seedy. Its an eclectic noir that juggles a range of decently fleshed out characters in an intertwining story of cat and mouse crime. It’s told in gritty prose that takes its point and hammers it home with no bullshit involved. Set in Greece and vividly imagined, you have a debut that exhibits culture and tense atmosphere under hard boiled form.
Long Lost Dog Of It is a raw book, one that seeps into your thoughts after reading with its deceptive menace. The tone of the novel is stone cold. I believe it is a masterpiece.
This one just feels seedy. Its an eclectic noir that juggles a range of decently fleshed out characters in an intertwining story of cat and mouse crime. It’s told in gritty prose that takes its point and hammers it home with no bullshit involved. Set in Greece and vividly imagined, you have a debut that exhibits culture and tense atmosphere under hard boiled form.
Long Lost Dog Of It is a raw book, one that seeps into your thoughts after reading with its deceptive menace. The tone of the novel is stone cold. I believe it is a masterpiece.
February 12, 2018
DeLillo meets James M. Cain in the underbelly of Athens in the midst of financial crisis; brilliance ensues.
July 18, 2014
Long Lost Dog of It is the fascinating debut novel from Michael Kazepis published by Broken River Books. I know you've heard this before, but this is truly not like anything I've read before. It certainly doesn't fit into any genre, and it reads more like a collection of tenuously connected short stories/flash pieces than a novel.
Set in Athens during the financial crisis protests, the book begins from the perspective of a vagrant, an appropriate choice to establish the narrative's wandering nature. Yet Kazepis also creates a strong sense of place, which connects a set of different characters' storylines. He possesses a deep understanding of the city and its people; the book's international setting is one of its strongest components.
Another strength is the writing. Kazepis writes like he's chiseling in stone--his prose confident and clear. Just look at how it begins:
The vagrant woke in plateia Monastiraki and wasn't sure when or how he arrived. His name was Ciprian Varia. He was dressed in salvaged clothes and boots that barely fit. Every part of him hurt.
A grimy, lonely atmosphere pervades the book, as each of the characters (a hitman, a young lesbian couple, a dive bar manager, among others) struggle to create meaning and to simply get by. As the vagrant says at one point, He felt goddamned lobotomized by survival.
While there are shades of noir, this is more contemplative, less plot-driven fare than my usual tastes. But it's a vivid, captivating title worthy of your attention.
Set in Athens during the financial crisis protests, the book begins from the perspective of a vagrant, an appropriate choice to establish the narrative's wandering nature. Yet Kazepis also creates a strong sense of place, which connects a set of different characters' storylines. He possesses a deep understanding of the city and its people; the book's international setting is one of its strongest components.
Another strength is the writing. Kazepis writes like he's chiseling in stone--his prose confident and clear. Just look at how it begins:
The vagrant woke in plateia Monastiraki and wasn't sure when or how he arrived. His name was Ciprian Varia. He was dressed in salvaged clothes and boots that barely fit. Every part of him hurt.
A grimy, lonely atmosphere pervades the book, as each of the characters (a hitman, a young lesbian couple, a dive bar manager, among others) struggle to create meaning and to simply get by. As the vagrant says at one point, He felt goddamned lobotomized by survival.
While there are shades of noir, this is more contemplative, less plot-driven fare than my usual tastes. But it's a vivid, captivating title worthy of your attention.
June 10, 2015
Politcal climate, punk rock in a foreign exciting setting, A serial killer and a hard boiled narrative. Yep all there and then some.
I really like hearing author's read their work live. I like to hear the artist telling the story in their own voice. Often that will sell me on reading a book or checking out an author. I might not have been interested in before. I was lucky enough to see Kazepis read from this novel twice. Once at the Hour That Stretches reading series in Portland, and once at the World Horror Convention. In this case it served to personalize the experience for me. I saw the author in every page of the book.
That can sometimes be a negative, but it was a strength in this case. The Long Lost Dog of it is a book about a time and place. It is almost entirely world building. It is clear it was a time and place Kazepis was trying to capture and he did a fantastic job of doing that.
It's strength is a a gritty crime setting think Elmore Leonard, but way more weird and bizarro world of the Greek underground scene. I can't tell you if it is a realistic look, as I never hung out there but the author did. The best thing I can about this novel is it felt like a place I had been to by the end of it. This was a setting Kazepis spent time in. Junesong the main female character was most vivid to me.
The plot is twisting and some times hard to follow but well worth it. I can tell you there is nothing like it for me to compare it too. That said it might not be for everyone. You like well written weird crime I think you’ll be happy.
I really like hearing author's read their work live. I like to hear the artist telling the story in their own voice. Often that will sell me on reading a book or checking out an author. I might not have been interested in before. I was lucky enough to see Kazepis read from this novel twice. Once at the Hour That Stretches reading series in Portland, and once at the World Horror Convention. In this case it served to personalize the experience for me. I saw the author in every page of the book.
That can sometimes be a negative, but it was a strength in this case. The Long Lost Dog of it is a book about a time and place. It is almost entirely world building. It is clear it was a time and place Kazepis was trying to capture and he did a fantastic job of doing that.
It's strength is a a gritty crime setting think Elmore Leonard, but way more weird and bizarro world of the Greek underground scene. I can't tell you if it is a realistic look, as I never hung out there but the author did. The best thing I can about this novel is it felt like a place I had been to by the end of it. This was a setting Kazepis spent time in. Junesong the main female character was most vivid to me.
The plot is twisting and some times hard to follow but well worth it. I can tell you there is nothing like it for me to compare it too. That said it might not be for everyone. You like well written weird crime I think you’ll be happy.
September 4, 2014
7/10
I was really excited to read this. The premise seemed a little strange, but based in a reality that I was very much interested in: a mix of politics, serial killers, lovers and punk (among some other things).
I had a bit of a hard time getting into it, or at least following it. This could very well be on me, and maybe it's because of my lack of knowledge on the culture or what, but it was hard to fully understand what was going on. I'm inclined to believe that's a little bit the fault of the author and mine, but it wasn't always the easiest thing to keep up with, despite being a short read. It was hard to be captivated by what I read, but I was still into it.
The author has an interesting new voice and I do look forward to his other books that he ends up writing. He tackles things that I'm intrigued and into myself, so I'm destined to eventually love something by him. His writing can be very blunt, but he'll throw in good metaphors and poetic passages here and there... there's rawness to what he does, a passion that maybe only debut authors truly have. The way he mixes noir elements and action leads me to believe he's a promising new author.
I was really excited to read this. The premise seemed a little strange, but based in a reality that I was very much interested in: a mix of politics, serial killers, lovers and punk (among some other things).
I had a bit of a hard time getting into it, or at least following it. This could very well be on me, and maybe it's because of my lack of knowledge on the culture or what, but it was hard to fully understand what was going on. I'm inclined to believe that's a little bit the fault of the author and mine, but it wasn't always the easiest thing to keep up with, despite being a short read. It was hard to be captivated by what I read, but I was still into it.
The author has an interesting new voice and I do look forward to his other books that he ends up writing. He tackles things that I'm intrigued and into myself, so I'm destined to eventually love something by him. His writing can be very blunt, but he'll throw in good metaphors and poetic passages here and there... there's rawness to what he does, a passion that maybe only debut authors truly have. The way he mixes noir elements and action leads me to believe he's a promising new author.
October 20, 2014
Dark, Dramatic Crime Fiction
Can a book be epic and minimalist at the same time? Long Lost Dog of It is epic in scope, in that it tells the story of a wide range of characters whose lives converge against a backdrop of crime and political tension in Greece. It's minimalist in that the prose is lean and strong and it knows where to throw its punches. For example, the author manages to set the scene without getting mucked up in the politics, which would bog the book down because that's not what it is about. I could have probably used a little bit more place descriptions, though. The characters are fully realized though, and that's what's important. The way their stories weave together is impressive. This is a heck of a debut.
Can a book be epic and minimalist at the same time? Long Lost Dog of It is epic in scope, in that it tells the story of a wide range of characters whose lives converge against a backdrop of crime and political tension in Greece. It's minimalist in that the prose is lean and strong and it knows where to throw its punches. For example, the author manages to set the scene without getting mucked up in the politics, which would bog the book down because that's not what it is about. I could have probably used a little bit more place descriptions, though. The characters are fully realized though, and that's what's important. The way their stories weave together is impressive. This is a heck of a debut.
July 27, 2014
"Long Lost Dog Of It" developed into something completely different from what I expected - a haunting and tragic dissection of crime story tropes.
It uses noir archetypes and common plot threads to comment on the romantic stories these elements are used to create, and how the real life stories they're often based on are nothing close to romantic or sexy.
The writing is hit or miss and very obviously the work of a new writer, but Kazepis sneaks in some beautiful prose and metaphors towards the end that really tie everything together.
It's a brisk read, so if the subject matter sounds like it might appeal to you I would certainly recommend giving it a try.
It uses noir archetypes and common plot threads to comment on the romantic stories these elements are used to create, and how the real life stories they're often based on are nothing close to romantic or sexy.
The writing is hit or miss and very obviously the work of a new writer, but Kazepis sneaks in some beautiful prose and metaphors towards the end that really tie everything together.
It's a brisk read, so if the subject matter sounds like it might appeal to you I would certainly recommend giving it a try.
December 18, 2015
Absolutely stunning...a portrait of tragedy torn Greece, told through vignettes of several different characters who all seem enmeshed in some weird way. They say it's a small world, and even though the characters in this book may not always directly cross paths, the piece as a whole feels very tight and together. My first Kazepis book, and I'm NOT disappointed. Will be reading much more if him in the future!
July 30, 2015
Long Lost Dog of It is a punk-tinged Noir set in Athens during the 2011 Greek financial crisis. The story follows quite a lot of characters (arguably a few too many for a book of this length) across different settings around the city. Some elements seem at times loosely connected, but the writing is always bold and dexterous. A worthwhile read, and a very promising debut.
November 7, 2015
This book was pretty difficult for me to follow for most of the book. This man really knows how to write, but I feel the different stories jump around too much and makes it very difficult to follow at times. I felt like doing three stars but he is a great writer, I will go 3 and a half
October 23, 2016
Great - loved its atmosphere and the sense of a hot, crumbling Athens. You should definitely read this.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews