FAST SOFA

by Bruce Craven ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 17, 1993

No amount of gimmicky packaging can compensate for the essential pointlessness of this first novel--a glib and predictable adolescent male fantasy that rips off Hunter Thompson, ""Wayne's World,"" and Douglas Coupland. With its cynical appeal to the vidiot generation, Craven's breathless fiction, full of thrash-punk-metal pretensions, is, at its core, a silly love story. Rick Jeffers, ""our hero,"" fancies himself an L.A. ""outlaw"" who lives for ""his tequila, his laziness, his attitude."" On acid, this jobless lout considers himself ""Lucifer incarnated in the body of a Burbank thrasher."" But his real problem seems to be fear of commitment--and of poor Tamara, the waitress/actress who so adores this ""bad boy"" but can't get him to do anything other than ""fight and make love, fight and make love."" Rick, meanwhile, lusts for porno queen Ginger Quail, ""a little scruffy unit of wayhone nectarama."" Tamara soon finds herself in bed with Rick's best friend, Jack Weiss, a real romantic who lives for ""his weights, his comics, his marijuana, his fighting,"" and for lots of TV-watching. After Rick's apartment gets broken into, he decides on a ""major road trip,"" during which he must ""stay cool and drink beer."" All the while, he adheres to the motto: ""Make it strange. Make it vicious. Make it weird."" In pursuit of Ms. Quail on location, Rick picks up a strange driving companion, gets beaten up for scoring a 16-year-old, shoplifts his supplies, blows up a truck, and eventually sees Ginger for the slut she is. An unearned bit of nihilism ends this phony romp, which is padded with lots of lame pop-cult commentary. Readers are wisely advised to ""play this novel loud."" The enclosed ""thrash-punk"" soundtrack just might drown out the submoronic buzz.

Pub Date: Feb. 17, 1993

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: 352

Publisher: Morrow

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 1992

Categories: FICTION