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Pierre, DBC (Pierre, D. B. C.; Pierre D B C).
VERNON GOD LITTLE: A 21ST CENTURY COMEDY IN THE PRESENCE OF DEATH.
London, England:
Faber & Faber,
2003.
Hardcover.
First Edition/First Printing.
279 pages.
As New/As New.
The author's breakthrough debut novel. Unquestionably, the most spectacular literary debut of 2003. The true First Edition. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions. Published in a very small first print run to enormous critical acclaim, the book has been a success abroad, but was ignored in the United States by the big publishing houses (it was published by a very small press called Canongate). Like many other commentators and critics, The New Yorker Magazine compared the book favorably to J. D. Salinger's "Catcher In The Rye". The basis for the comparison is primarily the eponymous character, who, like Holden Caulfield, is a smart and frustrated teenager. He believes the world around him is completely synthetic and anesthecized by a confluence of malevolent forces: Tabloid television, consumer-culture idiocy, Americans' obsession with the suffering of others as their way of denying their own, conspicuous consumption, as exemplified by Corporate America and Wall Street, and image-consciousness, as exemplified by mass-media advertising and "branded" personalities. If Vernon sounds way too intelligent and aware for his age, Joyce Carol Oates quickly points out that the novel's greatest strength is the author's "flawless ear for adolescent-boy speech. To his young narrator, virtually every adjective is 'f-----' and every vision of every adult is laced with repugnance, especially those adults in authority. Vernon is a Holden Caulfield on amphetamines. 'Vernon God Little' is raucous and brooding, coarse and lyrical, corrosive and sentimental in about equal measure and in the right way" (Joyce Carol Oates). It is a safe bet that "f-----" will gain the same currency that "phony" did, a word that was shocking to call grownups at the time and with which the sensitive and precocious Holden Caulfield described everything and everyone that were wrong with our world. DBC Pierre is the pseudonym of Peter Warren Finlay, who was born in Australia, raised in the United States and Mexico, and now divides his time among London, Sydney, and Dublin. DBC stands for "Dirty But Clean". His book was considered a very long shot for the Booker Prize, but when it was announced as the Winner, the judges hastened to add that the vote took "less than an hour to decide and was unanimous". The new "Catcher In The Rye", this is a "must-have" title for Modern First collectors. This title is no longer in print as a hardcover. This is one of relatively few copies of the true First Edition still available online and has no flaws, a pristine beauty. A very scarce copy thus. Winner of the Booker Prize in 2003. One of the most stunning new voices in contemporary literature. A flawless collectible copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER COPY OF THIS TITLE IN OUR CATALOG). ISBN 0571215157. $250.00 |
