Transgressive Fiction discussion

I'm a bit out of touch with modern writers, so I was hoping people might be able to put me onto some exciting new stuff?

I hear a lot about writers like Palahniuk and Irvine Welsh who are 2 of my favourite writers, plus older writers like the Beats and Bukowski, who I also really like. But I have trouble finding more recent stuff.

Some good ones that I've come across are:

Charlie Huston
Mark Danielewski
Steven Hall
James Salant
David Wong
Josh Bazel
DBC Pierre
Nick Cave

Try reading something by Bret Easton Ellis.

Try Knockemstiff and The Devil All the Time. Dark, dark stories!

Redroc lives!

Ha ha, alive & kicking!

I must give Gertie full credit for Knockemstiff & The Devil All the Time. Thanks for pointing me in the direction of Donald Ray Pollock, he is to hillbilly hicks what B.E.E is to yuppies!!!

Agreed, Black, about Bret Easton Ellis. Great recommendation. As is, if I may, Nira/Sussa.

Man, Richard Price's "Clockers" (yes, the same one Spike Lee did the movie of) is underrated and pretty gritty. Price is an excellent author, winning the Oscar for his screenplay of The Color Of Money for example. Stuff I haven't often heard mentioned: Sol Yurick's "The Warriors" (yes, like the film), Richard Allen's megaviolent novel "Skinhead" (its a tough book to find), or anything by Donald Goines "Dopefiend" or "WHoreson"..... What I like about Goines especially is he LIVED nad DIED as he wrote.... Chicago hustler and pimp, later drug addict, gunned down in the streets over some local bullshit. So... there's my 2 cents for this AM.......Cheers

Shit... you said new writers..... Battle Royale... one of the coolest books I've ever read.... Hunger Games ripped off every element of it. Can't remember the author.

Battle Royale is by Koushun Takami.

I've had that on my TBR forever. Whenever I mention this book I want to also mention this "cheat sheet" page: http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/6...

Andersen Prunty alternates between horror and transgressional. I really enjoyed Fill the Grand Canyon and Live Forever.

I love that Grand Canyon title. I know a lot of authors prefer the short snappy ones, but sometimes the longer ones are so much more evocative. Reminds me of Kissing You is Like Trying to Punch a Ghost (which is definitely transgressive by the way. New author.)

I like long titles, too, but they always make me fear that the book is going to be new maximalism.

That's a fair fear. :-)

I quite like long titles too, I settled on 'Malice in Blunderland' for the first book. Going for that snappy single word title on book two 'Cocksickle' - I like it when a title raises questions.

I posted this in another similar thread, but I've recently published a transgressive novel http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_nos... you can preview inside the book. The synopsis goes as:

A twenty-something-year-old runaway searches for "home" down the yellow brick road's underworld of crime bosses, strippers, and a warped lover who wears a stitched-up happy face mask in this transgressive road trip down third-eye theology, drugs 101, and dangerous philosophy.

Autumn is bottoming out in the great below while working as a call girl who accompanies lonely customers and entertains married men. Her self-imposed black dress code and colour spectrum of wigs contrasts her optimistic taupe cardigan friend, April, and prescription meds addict, Valerie Valley, who debate their tao whether hope is a hoax if God is dead.

Every day bleeds into tomorrow as her next client is another man further down Darwin's evolutionary chart, until she meets Dylan, a stalky client who cuts above the rest and shows her the young sexy stupid secrets of a very strange new world.

Lemme know if you're interested. It's also available via Kindle e-books for .99cents

Alan wrote: "Andersen Prunty alternates between horror and transgressional. I really enjoyed Fill the Grand Canyon and Live Forever."

Love Andy's work- some great shorts as well

Can anyone tell me if I need to read Ellis' previous work before Lunar Park to fully understand? It sounds like the character is the same as previous novels and was wondering if i may be lost at parts if I start reading it.

I ask, because Lunar Park seems the most appealing to me compared to his prior work. Kind of sounds haunting and suspenseful which is what I am going for at the moment. Thanks

I don't know if you'll need to have read his previous work to understand Lunar Park, but you'd need to have to fully appreciate it.

Less than Zero is a super-quick read.

Grant wrote: "Man, Richard Price's "Clockers" (yes, the same one Spike Lee did the movie of) is underrated and pretty gritty. Price is an excellent author, winning the Oscar for his screenplay of The Color Of Mo..."

Thanx dude, will definately look into Richard Allen and Donald Giones. They both soundlike they would suit my likings

Try The Locked Room by Paul Auster. Also Bear V. Shark if you're looking for something more along the lines of satire.

David Foster Wallace was pretty transgressive, but his intellectual gymnastics aren't for everyone.

The last two books I've read are Clevenger's 'Dermaphoria', and 'The Contortionist's Handbook'. Clevenger is brill in this genre if that's what one calls his writing. I've heard Clevenger call himself noir, but either way, try these out.

Craig Clevenger is a bad ass. His writing is beyond phenomenal.

Yeah, Craig is a cool guy too.

To those names mentioned above I'd like to add Blake Butler, Benjamin Percy,Brian Evenson,Matt Bell and anybody who reads Clevenger got to be familiar with Will Christopher Baer and Stephen Graham Jones.

Don't forget that Welsh's Skagboys has been out for a bit, but the paperback just hit. Anybody read it yet? What'd you think?

Hi everyone,
Would it be possible to put my novel Into Forever on the group bookshelf?

Extracts from Into Forever for your consideration can be found below.

http://www.chaudjourpublishing.co.uk/...


Kind regards,

Thomas Purser

Try the spellbinding new novel THE RED SHOES by one of my favorite writers, John Stewart Wynne. It's in the tradition of Burroughs, Rechy and Genet. Wynne also wrote the startling, no holds barred story collection THE OTHER WORLD and the gritty neo-noir novel CRIME WAVE.

Hi everybody,

I have a book that definitely fits this category and I'd love to hear what you all think.

It's called The Last Time I Died and is being released by Tyrus Books in January 2014.

Happy to send free review copies.

You can see more here:
The Last Time I Died

I definitely agree with Josh, Darren, only I'd add Glamorama. I think it's a really fantastic transgressive novel as well as a hysterically funny satire.

Mark wrote: "I'm a bit out of touch with modern writers, so I was hoping people might be able to put me onto some exciting new stuff?

I hear a lot about writers like Palahniuk and Irvine Welsh who are 2 of my ..."

You certainly can't go wrong with anything by Palahniuk. I also recommend Bret Easton Ellis' 'American Psycho', Hubert Selby Jr.'s 'The Demon' and, of course, Nabokov's 'Lolita'.

And what the hell, I'm going to throw in MY brand new dark comic transgressive novel, 'The Exit Man'. You can learn about it (and read excerpts, check out testimonials, etc.) by going to the following page of my website: http://www.greglevin.com/novels.html

All the best,

Greg Levin

J. wrote: "I definitely agree with Josh, Darren, only I'd add Glamorama. I think it's a really fantastic transgressive novel as well as a hysterically funny satire."

Glamorama is an interesting read though I found it pretty hard going at times. I loved American Psycho and Less Than Zero. Planning to read Lunar Park soon. Have you read it?

Redroc wrote: "Try Knockemstiff and The Devil All the Time. Dark, dark stories!"

Thanks for the recommendations Redroc. I have added both to my ever growing to-read list.

J. wrote: "Don't forget that Welsh's Skagboys has been out for a bit, but the paperback just hit. Anybody read it yet? What'd you think?"

Haven't read it yet, but have purchased a copy.

Ray wrote: "Try The Locked Room by Paul Auster. Also Bear V. Shark if you're looking for something more along the lines of satire.

David Foster Wallace w..." I love satire Ray. Have added both to my to-read list.

Skagboys was brilliant. in going to go as far as to say it was better than Trainspotting. Welsh has improved significantly as a writer over the years.

Skagboys is as gritty as Trainspotting but has a far more developed emotional depth - I loved it.

Grace wrote: "Skagboys was brilliant. in going to go as far as to say it was better than Trainspotting. Welsh has improved significantly as a writer over the years.

Skagboys is as gritty as Trainspotting but h..."

Looking forward to reading Skagboys soon Grace.

you should try Ryu Murakami (not confuse him with Haruki Murakami). He's not that recent but if you still haven't read "Almost Transparent Blue" you definitely should. Another great book that fits very well with your description is Fernando Funes "Ciudad Spectral" (Spectral City), wich also can be downloaded for free. Sadly isn't available in english

Here is my first piece of Transgressive Fiction. Enter CCXLFS7Q and get $3.00 of the purchase of Korea: How You Feel https://t.co/47VczivSMk

Here is the eBook of Korea: How You Feel:
http://www.amazon.com/Korea-How-Feel-...

You guys need to check out a writer named Tony O'Neill. Start with a novel called Sick City. I read one of his books a couple months ago and went out and bought all of them. I'm just about done with his last book Black Neon. This guy is the most underrated transgressive writer of all time. He's just as good as Welsh. And that's saying a lot from me. Also check out Permanant Midnight and Bad Sex on Speed by Jerry Stahl. And Junkie Love by Joe Clifford. This is what I've been reading lately and I'm back on a full blown can't-wait-to-get home reading binge.. Also there's a book by Ryan Leone called Wasting Talent... ;) but my book comes no where close to the aforementioned writers.. If you haven't read my book yet, private message me and I'll send you a free kindle copy for a review. I appreciate all the great recommendations to authors I've never heard of. That's what goodreads is all about.

Darren wrote: "Can anyone tell me if I need to read Ellis' previous work before Lunar Park to fully understand? It sounds like the character is the same as previous novels and was wondering if i may be lost at pa..."

I would read at least American Psycho first. Lunar Park is his strongest effort in my opinion. I think a lot of people didn't understand it. It had the most social commentary and deepest themes of any of his novels. It's satirical and you should go into it knowing that he is a caricature of himself. It's a eulogy for his father. It's really a beautiful novel. I have read it five or six times.

The Heart Does Not Grow Back by Fred Venturini.

He's a great author. One of his short stories has been included in Burnt Tongues.

That sounds really interesting Andrea, added to my list.

I read JANE. by Riya Polcastro which you can find here. I'd recommend it. Dark, weird, unique etc. It's also gave me the idea to start another thread on this forum...

And that one is free now

Nice one, Jason. I forgot to include that. It's free on Amazon to all who may be interested.

I think I purchased this the other day, need to check my kindle.

You mentioned it to me that you had when I was reading it.

Thanks my little stalker

You're welcome dreamboat ;-)