What do you think?
Rate this book
Idoli
Protagonista di questo romanzo è Dennis, un romanziere ossessionato dalle proprie fantasie e dall'impossibilità di realizzarle. Cercando di recuperare il senso di onnipotenza provato in gioventù durante un viaggio acido, Dennis si affida all'LSD per riuscire a scrivere un romanzo che narri della sua vita e, al contempo, distingua ciò che è reale da ciò che è illusorio. E così si dipana la vita caotica del protagonista, diviso tra la sua relazione morbosa con Chris, un tossicodipendente le cui fantasie sessuali sono omicidi e mutilazioni, e l'amore platonico per Luke, nella cui innocenza si annida una speranza di salvezza.
208 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1979
222 people want to read
About the author
Dennis Cooper
109 books1,783 followersDennis Cooper was born on January 10, 1953. He grew up in the Southern California cities of Covina and Arcadia.
He wrote stories and poems from early age but got serious about writing at 15 after reading Arthur Rimbaud and The Marquis de Sade. He attended LA county public schools until the 8th grade when he transferred to a private school, Flintridge Preparatory School for Boys in La Canada, California, from which he was expelled in the 11th grade.
While at Flintridge, he met his friend George Miles, who would become his muse and the subject of much of his future writing. He attended Pasadena City College for two years, attending poetry writing workshops taught by the poets Ronald Koertge and Jerene Hewitt. He then attended one year of university at Pitzer College in Claremont, California, where he studied with the poet Bert Meyers.
In 1976, he founded Little Caesar Magazine and Press, which he ran until 1982. From 1980 to 1983 he was Director of Programming for the Beyond Baroque Literary/Art Center in Venice, California. From 1983 to 1985, he lived in New York City.
In 1985, he moved to Amsterdam for two and a half years, where he began his ten year long project, The George Miles Cycle, an interconnected sequence of five novels that includes Closer, Frisk, Try, Guide, and Period.
His post-George Miles Cycle novels include My Loose Thread, The Sluts and God, Jr.
Other works include the short-story collections Wrong and Ugly Man, poetry collections The Dream Police and The Weaklings, as well as the recent Smothered in Hugs: Essays, Interviews, Feedback, and Obituaries.
Dennis Cooper currently spends his time between Los Angeles and Paris.
He wrote stories and poems from early age but got serious about writing at 15 after reading Arthur Rimbaud and The Marquis de Sade. He attended LA county public schools until the 8th grade when he transferred to a private school, Flintridge Preparatory School for Boys in La Canada, California, from which he was expelled in the 11th grade.
While at Flintridge, he met his friend George Miles, who would become his muse and the subject of much of his future writing. He attended Pasadena City College for two years, attending poetry writing workshops taught by the poets Ronald Koertge and Jerene Hewitt. He then attended one year of university at Pitzer College in Claremont, California, where he studied with the poet Bert Meyers.
In 1976, he founded Little Caesar Magazine and Press, which he ran until 1982. From 1980 to 1983 he was Director of Programming for the Beyond Baroque Literary/Art Center in Venice, California. From 1983 to 1985, he lived in New York City.
In 1985, he moved to Amsterdam for two and a half years, where he began his ten year long project, The George Miles Cycle, an interconnected sequence of five novels that includes Closer, Frisk, Try, Guide, and Period.
His post-George Miles Cycle novels include My Loose Thread, The Sluts and God, Jr.
Other works include the short-story collections Wrong and Ugly Man, poetry collections The Dream Police and The Weaklings, as well as the recent Smothered in Hugs: Essays, Interviews, Feedback, and Obituaries.
Dennis Cooper currently spends his time between Los Angeles and Paris.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
September 10, 2011
La tenerezza dei violenti.
Quarto episodio del Ciclo di George Miles, è probabilmente il più autobiografico dei romanzi di Cooper, fosse solo per il protagonista narrante che dell'autore porta nome e cognome. Con rimandi agli altri romanzi della serie, a cominciare dal primo, si propone come uno dei più caratteristici di Dennis Cooper, ricco di ambivalenti immagini e temi forti: orrore ed innocenza, violenza e tenerezza, con un sottofondo animato fatto di trip psichedelici, pedopornografia, grunge e new wawe, messi lì come il brusio di una tv sfasata in lontananza.
E' un romanzo intimo, stritolato in spazi chiusi, che suscita nel lettore un senso di soffocamento senza via d'uscita. E' la storia di un uomo, Dennis Cooper, un uomo che si dice malato, che si dice diverso, i cui sentimenti si compongono in parti uguali di purezza e orrore: davvero, nei sogni di estrema violenza di Cooper c'è qualcosa di puro e di santo. E lo stesso stupro del mal celato cantante dei Blur, tirato in causa senza tanti problemi dall'autore, appare un solenne rito sacrificale.
Che non si pensi, però, al puro piacere della trasgressione: se è vero che Cooper ama fare luce sugli abissi dell'animo umano, la vera trasgressione è quella di un linguaggio violato e violentato. E oggi, non c'è più nulla di trasgressivo del trasformare l'orrore in pura poesia.
Quarto episodio del Ciclo di George Miles, è probabilmente il più autobiografico dei romanzi di Cooper, fosse solo per il protagonista narrante che dell'autore porta nome e cognome. Con rimandi agli altri romanzi della serie, a cominciare dal primo, si propone come uno dei più caratteristici di Dennis Cooper, ricco di ambivalenti immagini e temi forti: orrore ed innocenza, violenza e tenerezza, con un sottofondo animato fatto di trip psichedelici, pedopornografia, grunge e new wawe, messi lì come il brusio di una tv sfasata in lontananza.
E' un romanzo intimo, stritolato in spazi chiusi, che suscita nel lettore un senso di soffocamento senza via d'uscita. E' la storia di un uomo, Dennis Cooper, un uomo che si dice malato, che si dice diverso, i cui sentimenti si compongono in parti uguali di purezza e orrore: davvero, nei sogni di estrema violenza di Cooper c'è qualcosa di puro e di santo. E lo stesso stupro del mal celato cantante dei Blur, tirato in causa senza tanti problemi dall'autore, appare un solenne rito sacrificale.
Che non si pensi, però, al puro piacere della trasgressione: se è vero che Cooper ama fare luce sugli abissi dell'animo umano, la vera trasgressione è quella di un linguaggio violato e violentato. E oggi, non c'è più nulla di trasgressivo del trasformare l'orrore in pura poesia.
June 11, 2025
I know every-
thing about my idol and
he’s nothing like a god.
Very sexy, very gay book about sex, desire, youth, lust, aging etc. Some poems made me raise my eyebrow at its subject matter, but overall I loved how Dennis Cooper wrote about different experiences in our search for perfection and performance.
thing about my idol and
he’s nothing like a god.
Very sexy, very gay book about sex, desire, youth, lust, aging etc. Some poems made me raise my eyebrow at its subject matter, but overall I loved how Dennis Cooper wrote about different experiences in our search for perfection and performance.
September 25, 2011
Quarto episodio del Ciclo di George Miles, è probabilmente il più autobiografico dei romanzi di Cooper, fosse solo per il protagonista narrante che dell'autore porta nome e cognome. Con rimandi agli altri romanzi della serie, a cominciare dal primo, si propone come uno dei più caratteristici di Dennis Cooper, ricco di ambivalenti immagini e temi forti: orrore ed innocenza, violenza e tenerezza, con un sottofondo animato fatto di trip psichedelici, pedopornografia, grunge e new wawe, messi lì come il brusio di una tv sfasata in lontananza.
Continua su
http://www.lastambergadeilettori.com/...
Continua su
http://www.lastambergadeilettori.com/...
March 25, 2009
Beautiful, lyrical poetry from Cooper, before he developed his niche as a writer on the fringe of the fringe.
September 5, 2009
If you can find the original, by all means buy it. No one writes with such sass and fire as Cooper. He is electric
June 7, 2024
I've been a fan of Dennis Cooper's work for years now. He's shocking. He's brutal. He's sexually provocative. He's unapologetic.
I have the 1979 SeaHorse Press edition (the first) of 'Idols' with the seductive b&w etching of a male standing on a marble pedestal, just the thighs on down, with his pants around his ankles. It's fairly obvious what Cooper was waxing poetically about in 1979.
Gay Pride was just 10 years old and I was 18 and coming out shortly after this. I grew up fantasizing about David and Shaun Cassidy, JFK Jr, the boys in my high school locker room, the swimmers at the Olympics, rock stars like Andy Gibb or Freddie Mercury. I've written my own fair share of poems centered on adolescent lust.
Cooper is just revving up his more brutal sexual writing in this collection, and his experiences with gay sex started earlier than my own, probably the difference in growing up in southern CA and rural Iowa. But I can still relate to these poems. Especially 'David Cassidy Then' and 'Shaun Cassidy, 1977.' But if there is one poem that has aged quite differently and taken on a darker tone, it is 'Some Adventures of John F. Kennedy, Jr.' It's a series of poems that trace Jr's youth and adolescence, the gangly teenager who suddenly becomes the object of lust for gay men and women (Elaine Benes, famously in an episode of 'Seinfeld'). The series of 13 poems chronicles his experimenting with drugs, his partying, his failing 11th grade, traveling with his mother and sister, and there's a poignant (now) where he is writing a poem for a school assignment where he writes:
"I never thought anyone died,
especially not me,
then my father and uncle got it from maniacs
and Ari kicked the bucket the hard way,
and I've started thinking of my own death,
when will it come and how,
by some madman out to end the Kennedys?
I hope so, and that it happens
before I have a chance to show my mediocrity."
John-John could never be mediocre. He would die 20 years after the publication of "Idols" and we all mourned the loss of our handsome prince.
I have the 1979 SeaHorse Press edition (the first) of 'Idols' with the seductive b&w etching of a male standing on a marble pedestal, just the thighs on down, with his pants around his ankles. It's fairly obvious what Cooper was waxing poetically about in 1979.
Gay Pride was just 10 years old and I was 18 and coming out shortly after this. I grew up fantasizing about David and Shaun Cassidy, JFK Jr, the boys in my high school locker room, the swimmers at the Olympics, rock stars like Andy Gibb or Freddie Mercury. I've written my own fair share of poems centered on adolescent lust.
Cooper is just revving up his more brutal sexual writing in this collection, and his experiences with gay sex started earlier than my own, probably the difference in growing up in southern CA and rural Iowa. But I can still relate to these poems. Especially 'David Cassidy Then' and 'Shaun Cassidy, 1977.' But if there is one poem that has aged quite differently and taken on a darker tone, it is 'Some Adventures of John F. Kennedy, Jr.' It's a series of poems that trace Jr's youth and adolescence, the gangly teenager who suddenly becomes the object of lust for gay men and women (Elaine Benes, famously in an episode of 'Seinfeld'). The series of 13 poems chronicles his experimenting with drugs, his partying, his failing 11th grade, traveling with his mother and sister, and there's a poignant (now) where he is writing a poem for a school assignment where he writes:
"I never thought anyone died,
especially not me,
then my father and uncle got it from maniacs
and Ari kicked the bucket the hard way,
and I've started thinking of my own death,
when will it come and how,
by some madman out to end the Kennedys?
I hope so, and that it happens
before I have a chance to show my mediocrity."
John-John could never be mediocre. He would die 20 years after the publication of "Idols" and we all mourned the loss of our handsome prince.
May 1, 2010
One of Cooper's earliest books of poetry. This first edition contains two poems which were removed from subsequent editions because Cooper found them to be lacking. Many of these poems also appear in other collections, such as Dream Police and Jerk. It is interesting to see the earlier poems, as they are milder in nature, but still hint at what Cooper will be doing in his later work. I also particularly enjoyed the poem dedicated to Arthur Rimbaud, and the mention of Rimbaud in the author's auto-biography.
Read
October 17, 2012Finiti
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews