Try

by Dennis Cooper

Paper Book, 1994

Status

Available

Call number

PS3553.O582T79 1994

Publication

New York : Grove Press, c1994.

Description

Ziggy is the adopted teenage son of two sexually abusive fathers, whose failed experiment at nuclear family living has left him stranded with one and increasingly present in the fantasies of the other. He turns from both of these men to his uncle, who sells pornographic videos on the black market, and to his best friend, a drug addict whose own vulnerability inspires in him a fierce and awkward devotion. In Try, his most ambitious fiction to date, Dennis Cooper continues his investigation of frailties and excesses of human existence.

User reviews

LibraryThing member poetontheone

The best thing about Cooper's thematically linked George Miles cycle, of which this is the third installment, is that each book has a slightly different timbre. The cold but starry-eyed detachment of Closer, the total body horror of Frisk, and now the broken and distorted intimacy of Try. A limited

narrative perspective from young Ziggy gives readers an almost unimaginably affected and muted experience of living through sexual abuse, and also a tender and devastatingly awkward love story with his heroin-addicted friend Calhoun. This is also the first time there is a straight sex scene in the cycle, and it is framed in such away that reaffirms for us that not only is Cooper's content queer, but his style and tone as well even when talking about heterosexual acts. Try is probably my second favorite book from Dennis Cooper, right after Frisk. Try is even a little humorous in the midst of its incredible degradation. The most moving novel about rimming you will ever read.

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LibraryThing member HugoBlumenthal

Well, this is not precisely the sort of book you should take on holidays, but Dennis Cooper’s style is so wonderful that, if you like contemporary literature, and consider yourself open-minded, you must read something by him. I still prefer his book of short-stories, Wrong, but Try could be a

good start for anybody who still doesn’t know Dennis Cooper. That’s because it’s more linear and easy to follow that some of the stories in Wrong. Just give it a try… But, beware, this is definitively not the sort of book you could share with your right-wing mom ;-)

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LibraryThing member EdwardC

One could pick up any of Cooper's novels and get something very similar to this title. This just happens to be my favorite of the series. If for no other reason than its twisted humor. The abused kid in the novel titles his 'zine "I Apologize."

LibraryThing member kjharrison

More of the same from Dennis Cooper.

Fewer