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Firework
Praise for Eugene Marten's Waste : "When a poet pal had put a copy of Waste into my hands, I right away went nuts. . . . Here, said I, in wild proclamation, is one for history and a half."— Gordon Lish Firework is the story of a man who, though ill-equipped to help himself, attempts to help someone else, and the beautifully rendered, perhaps necessary catastrophe that results. Unequaled in intensity and often blackly humorous, it is also an exhilarating expression of the all-too-human impulse to become more than what we seem to be. Eugene Marten is the author of In the Blind and Waste .
326 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 2010
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531 people want to read
About the author
Eugene Marten
7 books42 followersEugene Marten lives in New Mexico. He is also the author of the novels In The Blind (Turtle Point), Waste (Ellipsis), and Firework (Tyrant Books).
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
December 16, 2016
Read 11/25/16 - 12/13/16
4 Stars - Strongly Recommended / The second half is wowsers
Pages: 326
Publisher: Tyrant Books
Released: 2010
Yeah, I know. I took my sweet old time with this one. At first, I had no idea if I was even going to stick with it. It was slow. The writing was jarring. I think the book was like "fuck you, don't like me. I don't want you to like me".
I kinda sorta dug it while I was reading it but if I put it down, watch out, whole days went by before I felt the pull to pick it back up.
But then somewhere in the middle there, something changed. The novel started getting some weight to it and before I realized it, I had chewed through a good one-hundred pages of it in a single sitting. I almost wanted to finish the book right then and there but I was too tired to turn another page.
About midway through, the loosey goosey protagonist was suddenly showing some real personality and holy hell is he fucked up, right?
I mean, ok, Jelonnek was fucked up from the start. When we first meet him, he's being picked up by the cops and skirts being bullied in a jail cell for a few days. We don't know much about him and honestly, we can't be bothered to care because he doesn't seem to care either. He also doesn't seem to be good at anything. No. Wait. That's not entirely true. Jelonnek's sort of a natural at being a half-ass, at doing just enough to get by. At work and at life. You might not realize it, but doing 'just enough' to get by takes some skill. Though I imagine it's got to be quite tiresome after awhile. But Jelonnek's no quitter. No sirree. When he decides that skating by is how he wants to live, there's probably few people out there who can do it better.
All good things come to an end, though. And when Jelonnek finds himself on a cigarette run with his sister's boyfriend George, things get nasty. Fast. Jelonnek, who is at his most comfortable when embracing his slackerhood, breaks habit by getting involved with Littlebit, a prostitute George picks up and proceeds to beat the shit out of, and her daughter Miss D. Without much prompting, Jelonnek slides into the role of the reluctant hero and agrees to chauffeur the ladies across the country to meet up with Littlebit's elusive cousin.
Marten's style of writing is a character in and of itself. One reviewer discusses "the detached nature of the narration, which is not in first person" though it reads as though it is. His close third person preference and bleak prose is disorientating at first but ultimately sucks you in. Instead of turning away from Jelonnek's antics in disgust, we are drawn in further by him. And catch ourselves pitying him, caring for him, even though, damn it, we know we really really shouldn't. Maybe it's because we can see bits and pieces of ourselves in Jelonnek? Or maybe it's because we can't help but watch a trainwreck? Whatever it is, it keeps us glued to the page, right up to Jelonnek's grand finale.
And what a finale it is.
4 Stars - Strongly Recommended / The second half is wowsers
Pages: 326
Publisher: Tyrant Books
Released: 2010
Yeah, I know. I took my sweet old time with this one. At first, I had no idea if I was even going to stick with it. It was slow. The writing was jarring. I think the book was like "fuck you, don't like me. I don't want you to like me".
I kinda sorta dug it while I was reading it but if I put it down, watch out, whole days went by before I felt the pull to pick it back up.
But then somewhere in the middle there, something changed. The novel started getting some weight to it and before I realized it, I had chewed through a good one-hundred pages of it in a single sitting. I almost wanted to finish the book right then and there but I was too tired to turn another page.
About midway through, the loosey goosey protagonist was suddenly showing some real personality and holy hell is he fucked up, right?
I mean, ok, Jelonnek was fucked up from the start. When we first meet him, he's being picked up by the cops and skirts being bullied in a jail cell for a few days. We don't know much about him and honestly, we can't be bothered to care because he doesn't seem to care either. He also doesn't seem to be good at anything. No. Wait. That's not entirely true. Jelonnek's sort of a natural at being a half-ass, at doing just enough to get by. At work and at life. You might not realize it, but doing 'just enough' to get by takes some skill. Though I imagine it's got to be quite tiresome after awhile. But Jelonnek's no quitter. No sirree. When he decides that skating by is how he wants to live, there's probably few people out there who can do it better.
All good things come to an end, though. And when Jelonnek finds himself on a cigarette run with his sister's boyfriend George, things get nasty. Fast. Jelonnek, who is at his most comfortable when embracing his slackerhood, breaks habit by getting involved with Littlebit, a prostitute George picks up and proceeds to beat the shit out of, and her daughter Miss D. Without much prompting, Jelonnek slides into the role of the reluctant hero and agrees to chauffeur the ladies across the country to meet up with Littlebit's elusive cousin.
Marten's style of writing is a character in and of itself. One reviewer discusses "the detached nature of the narration, which is not in first person" though it reads as though it is. His close third person preference and bleak prose is disorientating at first but ultimately sucks you in. Instead of turning away from Jelonnek's antics in disgust, we are drawn in further by him. And catch ourselves pitying him, caring for him, even though, damn it, we know we really really shouldn't. Maybe it's because we can see bits and pieces of ourselves in Jelonnek? Or maybe it's because we can't help but watch a trainwreck? Whatever it is, it keeps us glued to the page, right up to Jelonnek's grand finale.
And what a finale it is.
June 26, 2016
A friend touted this as "probably the best book published in the last 10 years." I understand why: sentence by sentence it is tight, the editing brutal, the story gritty, the style experimental, the characters inscrutable, the ending horrifying.
Jelonnek is a blue-collar loser who happens into something of a heroic position, which is then systematically undermined as he psychically crumples under the weight of his new-found responsibilities. As he says late in the novel, "zero rhymes with hero...zero equals hero but where is the other half?"
Personally, while I can see the virtuosity that my friend praised, I couldn't help but think the writing and editing had a particularly Lishy feel--a "feel" that I find myself increasingly tired of, even while I acknowledge that his influence very often contributes to spectacular works of fiction (ahem Amy Hempel!). Indeed, Marten dedicates Firework to "Gordon" even though it is published by Tyrant, the younger Atticus Lish's preferred (and purportedly unaffiliated) house.
But Gordon's fingers are all over it--not just in the blurb, but in the narrative distance, the punchy sentences, the hyper-precise metaphors. I found this all very distracting, frankly. Each time I picked it up, I had to make it through at least 15 pages until I could ignore the Lish-ticks, and appreciate it on its own terms. Lish is good, but too much Lish is a bad thing; he requires a sort of flattened fiction which rubs me the wrong way.
Jelonnek is a blue-collar loser who happens into something of a heroic position, which is then systematically undermined as he psychically crumples under the weight of his new-found responsibilities. As he says late in the novel, "zero rhymes with hero...zero equals hero but where is the other half?"
Personally, while I can see the virtuosity that my friend praised, I couldn't help but think the writing and editing had a particularly Lishy feel--a "feel" that I find myself increasingly tired of, even while I acknowledge that his influence very often contributes to spectacular works of fiction (ahem Amy Hempel!). Indeed, Marten dedicates Firework to "Gordon" even though it is published by Tyrant, the younger Atticus Lish's preferred (and purportedly unaffiliated) house.
But Gordon's fingers are all over it--not just in the blurb, but in the narrative distance, the punchy sentences, the hyper-precise metaphors. I found this all very distracting, frankly. Each time I picked it up, I had to make it through at least 15 pages until I could ignore the Lish-ticks, and appreciate it on its own terms. Lish is good, but too much Lish is a bad thing; he requires a sort of flattened fiction which rubs me the wrong way.
February 25, 2018
I loved this book. I loved it no rule following and it's ugly and uncharted. I liked the characters and how they were not perfect and not good and also good. I would love a movie of this. Thanks, Eugene. Thanks NY Tyrant
May 28, 2021
If you want to feel good, escape to a better place, believe in the goodness of people, do not read this book! If you can take it though, you will feel the power that is great writing.
February 8, 2011
There's a collage by David Wojnarowicz made of cut up maps that shows a burning map-man running down a burning street. Marten presents his own map-man, Jelonnek in a neo-American gothic setting. Set in the 90's, the novel hovers over the broken rust belt world of Cleveland then moves across the country. Marten builds his world and characters carefully and moves them through a range of compelling and horrifying experiences, jobs, and languages. Jelonnek is a book length study in the part of the character that exists both as bystander and accomplice, perpetrator and victim. He is a vacuum and a man outside of his times, a world of blithe and base assumption and glib labeling. Marten's sentences are captivating, his descriptions, and his knowledge of his characters are all impressive. I walked away feeling like I'd been shown something I knew I didn't want to know.
July 1, 2010
This book interrupted my life. It's engrossing, vivid in sentence and story. I could not put it down. It was the same way with Waste, the other book by Marten that I read, but Firework seems bigger and even more dramatic.
November 25, 2018
A strange book eluding the typical prose. Its dense, yet dissolving, at times illuminating and others a minefield of density. The story is the reason to stay. The burn that melts flesh and bone.
July 11, 2021
What a study in narration as character! Marten does a masterful job of putting the reader in the main character's flawed mind, and the story moves with a deft pace and gracefully rendered surprises. The dialogue is terrific, and the slow burn of a life as it falls apart is as compelling as any I've read. It's honestly impossible to tell where the decisions stop and the mental illness begins. And even still, there's an unexpected kind of humanity all wrapped up in it...in all the imperfect ways we try to take care of each other. Impressive doesn't begin to cover it! I'm definitely looking forward to finding more work by Marten.
July 3, 2010
Believe the hype.
July 7, 2010
Eugene Marten’s Firework is the 21st century ‘s On The Road. It’s a filthy tour-de-force of debauchery and redemption that I’ll never forget, yet am too scared to reread.
February 9, 2021
The story: Midwestern guy (named Jelonnek but he feels nameless somehow) is stuck in a boring life, drinking too much beer and living in an passionless relationship with a nameless woman. At the beginning of the book he is picked up in a humiliating prostitution sting and thrown in jail, where he pisses himself and is bullied by the other prisoners. He is a sort of useless guy, living in the shadow of his brutal, competent Polish father, putting together a moronic screenplay about the Apocalypse. The Apocalypse is an apt theme: the book is set in the early 90s, when the US was rent by the Rodney King riots and the civil war in Bosnia kicked off. Racism, antisemitism, and violent sexual imagery are never far from Jelonnek's stream of thought. The images from these violent events provide the backdrop for Jelonnek's journey, which begins at his brother's wedding. His sister's shitheel husband wants smokes, and Jelonnek accompanies him. Unfortunately for J., the other man also wants to visit with some prostitutes, whom he abducts and attacks. This leads to a genuinely thrilling chase sequence, although it's hard to savor because of the brutal violence the other man visits on one of the women. Eventually Jelonnek and the women get away, and he embarks on a journey across the country with one of them, name of Littlebit.
Littlebit has a daughter, Miss D, and a cousin working as a musician in Portland. In order to flee the trouble from the car chase, and to get away from the wreckage of his life, Jelonnek accompanies her cross-country. Although the book is described in some reviews as a road novel, most of the action takes place in Cleveland or Portland, with only a few noteworthy events taking place on the journey.
Once they reach Portland they quickly run out of money, and J is forced to take a series of demeaning, shitty jobs. This, the best part of the book, passes as a quick montage of how he fucks up each of them in turn. It's not always his fault but he's never really helping. Usually someone is injured or something is broken, and the cuts between the jobs are so quick it gives a sort of comic, cinematic aspect.
Eventually J. is able to cash in on his old retirement fund, and he regathers Littlebit and Miss D to live as a sort of ersatz family in a house. Their house is painted with racial slurs. His brain starts to crack, either because of fear of them being attacked or because of the ambient shittiness of America or his own life. Eventually J fully separates from reality, apparently impregnates Miss D (she is still a child), and burns down their house, suffering grotesque burns all over his body. The other two live, and he is apparently imprisoned. A final scene (a dream?) has Miss D present him with a gift that we don't see -- could be his screenplay? The aborted fetus arising from the rape? Not clear.
You can tell that this book was written over a long period, for better or for worse. The language is polished and frequently beautiful, that gem-like "Lishian" quality that is on display in more famous writers like Amy Hempel and Raymond Carver. It's also fairly lean and doesn't really drag in any place, even though J.'s brain is dissolving you can always basically figure out what is being described and what is happening. Marten is a craftsman.
The "for worse" bit boils down to how dated the book feels. If you cringed at the "Wardine be cry" bits in Infinite Jest, there will be plenty of that. Having a white author write tons of AAVE is probably going to yield some ugly bits. That being said Marten is not the worst offender, and Littlebit is a genuinely funny character. There's a lot of really uncomfortable racial stuff in here, and Marten is not afraid to depict the evil racist white people of America for what they are, but he's also not .... politically optimal. J.'s violent sexual thoughts about basically every woman he meets (except, strangely, Littlebit, the prostitute he has as a common-law wife) are blended seamlessly into the narrative description, so that you have to train yourself to recognize them as fantasy. Less offensively, the scene that opens the novel as well as one that depicts the community reaction to the hate crime are both shown as scenes on the evening news. The author does a pretty good job capturing the awkward, halting cadence of news anchors and their sensational framing, but it just feels so ancient in the era of Blah Blah Blah.
If you liked Atticus Lish's similarly violent Preparation for the Next Life (Lish fils is a big Marten booster), then you'll probably enjoy this one. Just, you know, be ready for some pretty unpleasant stuff.
Littlebit has a daughter, Miss D, and a cousin working as a musician in Portland. In order to flee the trouble from the car chase, and to get away from the wreckage of his life, Jelonnek accompanies her cross-country. Although the book is described in some reviews as a road novel, most of the action takes place in Cleveland or Portland, with only a few noteworthy events taking place on the journey.
Once they reach Portland they quickly run out of money, and J is forced to take a series of demeaning, shitty jobs. This, the best part of the book, passes as a quick montage of how he fucks up each of them in turn. It's not always his fault but he's never really helping. Usually someone is injured or something is broken, and the cuts between the jobs are so quick it gives a sort of comic, cinematic aspect.
Eventually J. is able to cash in on his old retirement fund, and he regathers Littlebit and Miss D to live as a sort of ersatz family in a house. Their house is painted with racial slurs. His brain starts to crack, either because of fear of them being attacked or because of the ambient shittiness of America or his own life. Eventually J fully separates from reality, apparently impregnates Miss D (she is still a child), and burns down their house, suffering grotesque burns all over his body. The other two live, and he is apparently imprisoned. A final scene (a dream?) has Miss D present him with a gift that we don't see -- could be his screenplay? The aborted fetus arising from the rape? Not clear.
You can tell that this book was written over a long period, for better or for worse. The language is polished and frequently beautiful, that gem-like "Lishian" quality that is on display in more famous writers like Amy Hempel and Raymond Carver. It's also fairly lean and doesn't really drag in any place, even though J.'s brain is dissolving you can always basically figure out what is being described and what is happening. Marten is a craftsman.
The "for worse" bit boils down to how dated the book feels. If you cringed at the "Wardine be cry" bits in Infinite Jest, there will be plenty of that. Having a white author write tons of AAVE is probably going to yield some ugly bits. That being said Marten is not the worst offender, and Littlebit is a genuinely funny character. There's a lot of really uncomfortable racial stuff in here, and Marten is not afraid to depict the evil racist white people of America for what they are, but he's also not .... politically optimal. J.'s violent sexual thoughts about basically every woman he meets (except, strangely, Littlebit, the prostitute he has as a common-law wife) are blended seamlessly into the narrative description, so that you have to train yourself to recognize them as fantasy. Less offensively, the scene that opens the novel as well as one that depicts the community reaction to the hate crime are both shown as scenes on the evening news. The author does a pretty good job capturing the awkward, halting cadence of news anchors and their sensational framing, but it just feels so ancient in the era of Blah Blah Blah.
If you liked Atticus Lish's similarly violent Preparation for the Next Life (Lish fils is a big Marten booster), then you'll probably enjoy this one. Just, you know, be ready for some pretty unpleasant stuff.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 23, 2020
I was directed towards Marten's work by a YouTuber, Paperbird, who reviewed In the Blind . And now having read Waste and Firework, I can safely say that Marten is a talented prose stylist with a flare for engaging, fast-paced plots. I think in the literary community there is some undue dislike for plot-heavy novels. While that dislike may be merited, Firework is proof that this dislike isn't always grounded in reality.
Reading this, I found myself being sucked forward by the plot like a microscopic shard of glass into a vacuum cleaner. On every page or two there would be a moment where Marten would do something inventive with language -- be it a strange phrase, a callback to a phrase that appeared two pages earlier, or even dream-sequence type sentences in which a character's fantasy is presented as fact. These two elements make the book a terrifying pleasure. Terrifying because there are some truly disturbing and disgusting moments.
The only criticism I have is that I was left wondering how everything connects. Sometimes the book felt like a series of collected vignettes rather than a work unified by theme or plot. This is only a minor concern of mine and I'm sure that on a second reading, in which I would know what I am in for, I would be able to see how it all connects.
Also -- the work is a kick in the balls to anyone nostalgia for the 1990s.
All in all, I would recommend Marten's work to people who enjoy early Cormac McCarthy, Don Delillo or Raymond Carver.
Run Time: 8.5 hours
Reading this, I found myself being sucked forward by the plot like a microscopic shard of glass into a vacuum cleaner. On every page or two there would be a moment where Marten would do something inventive with language -- be it a strange phrase, a callback to a phrase that appeared two pages earlier, or even dream-sequence type sentences in which a character's fantasy is presented as fact. These two elements make the book a terrifying pleasure. Terrifying because there are some truly disturbing and disgusting moments.
The only criticism I have is that I was left wondering how everything connects. Sometimes the book felt like a series of collected vignettes rather than a work unified by theme or plot. This is only a minor concern of mine and I'm sure that on a second reading, in which I would know what I am in for, I would be able to see how it all connects.
Also -- the work is a kick in the balls to anyone nostalgia for the 1990s.
All in all, I would recommend Marten's work to people who enjoy early Cormac McCarthy, Don Delillo or Raymond Carver.
Run Time: 8.5 hours
December 2, 2023
"Firework" is a strange book. The main characters are all deeply flawed and unlikeable. The fragmentary style of writing that quickly jumps back and forth keeps the reader working to try to understand these ultimately unknowable people. Altogether it's a depressing picture of the doom and gloom of the early 90s with the advent of 24 hour cable news bringing Eastern European genocidal conflicts and LA race riots into everyone's living rooms. It's a unique reading experience.
December 7, 2024
Man I really hate having to use this app. I feel like it only works half the time. I already reread a book once this year and now I can't figure out how to log another reread. I've been reading a lot but putting off logging it because the experience is so annoying. Anyway this was excellent.
Read
May 29, 2018Some of the writing in this is stop-you-in-your-tracks good. Full review soon (hopefully).
December 6, 2021
Best living author
January 31, 2012
I wasn't sure during the first 200 pages of this book of how much I like it, or whether I'd be interested in reading any more of Eugene Marten's books. His prose is terse and somewhat removed. It feels like the work of non-fiction, or journalism (which is not always non-fiction, of course). He also employed a lot of purposely vague language that forced the reader to fill in the blanks--I ended up liking that bit of literary trickery, in the end. However, the last 100 to 130 pages of the book really take off and take twists and understated turns that left me surprised and, frankly, a little weirded out. While the story, as a whole, doesn't exactly have a plot, it all comes around in the end to be a complete novel, and a strange one at that. Especially strange given the detached nature of the narration, which is not in first person, but you almost forget that it isn't. In any case, I plan on picking up another of his books eventually.
January 23, 2011
I'm going to refrain from giving this a rating. The majority of the book, I contemplated quitting it, and because of that, I may have read it poorly. Throughout the book, I didn't understand any of the characters, where they were coming from, and why they were doing what they were doing. Maybe I was just expecting a completely different book.
August 10, 2011
Having just set this down, I may be reeling too much to write an accurate review, so this comment will have to suffice. I have read Marten's WASTE and IN THE BLIND, which I both adore, but this takes the cake: 329 pages of virtuosity...Heavy, dense, and rich. I have a feeling this book will be crawling under my skin for the rest of my life and that, I think, is a great thing.
July 21, 2010
It would be simpler to explain how this book made me think if you were a jury and I were a doll and Firework, as plaintif on the stand, could point to where it touched me. But you aren't and it isn't and I amn't, so.
December 17, 2010
I had a hard time getting into this book, but opted to give it until the end of the first section. I reached page 102 and just couldn't be in it any more. It was far too cryptic and spasmodic for my taste.
March 8, 2011
I have an early release copy and this book is gritty, real, good.
Loving it.
Amazing book!
Loving it.
Amazing book!
September 23, 2010
Though the main character was fascinating, I just couldn't understand him at all. So self-destructive.
April 14, 2011
Eugene Marten is a genius. Excellent read.
December 17, 2012
"[Marten] writes for the corner of your eye."
-Bernie Kosar
-Bernie Kosar
December 4, 2012
This book is insane. very insane.
May 13, 2013
A work of a tortured imagination that seared and ate my flesh for weeks afterward. A book I'm going to pass to a Lawrence, KS Suttree who claims he has given up reading.
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February 12, 2018i need a hug
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