- Paperback: 304 pages
- Publisher: MTV Books; New edition edition (May 1 1999)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0671027638
- ISBN-13: 978-0671027636
- Product Dimensions: 17.9 x 12.7 x 2.1 cm
- Shipping Weight: 272 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (83 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #226,829 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Library Journal
Okay, the narrator really is a fuck-up. Barely employed as an usher at a Village cinema, he falls for a colleague who seems dewily innocent even as he continues dumping his dirty clothes on girlfriend Sarah's floor. Then all in one day he loses his job, his chance for new love, and Sarah herself and winds up sleeping on the coach of a friend who's probably even more of a fuck-up than he is. From here he moves swiftly through trying to score, trying to keep his job at a porno theater by pretending that he's gay, and somehow getting himself involved in a robbery. Nersesian, a former editor at a literary magazine called The Portable Lower East Side and an English instructor at a community college in the Bronx, writes briskly and acutely, with a good sense of detail. At least he's not a fuck-up. But this isn't exactly the "slice of gritty New York life" promised on the cover. Despite the narrator's many astonishing escapades, it's really kind of bland.ABarbara Hoffert, "Library Journal"
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Review
The Village Voice [A] terrific novel....The charm and grit of Nersesian's voice is immediately enveloping, as the down-and-out but oddly up narrator...slinks through Alphabet City and guttural utterances of love.
Paper Nersesian creates a charming everyman whose candor and sure-footed description of his physical surroundings and emotional framework help his tale flow naturally and therefore believably.
Hal Sirowitz author of Mother Said A Trainspotting without drugs, New York style.
Time Out For those who remember that the eighties were as much about destitute grit as they were about the decadent glitz described in the novels of Bret Easton Ellis and Jay McInerney, this book will come as a fast-paced reminder.
Smug Magazine Touted as the bottled essence of early eighties East Village living, The Fuck-Up is, refreshingly, nothing nearly so limited....A cult favorite, I'd say it's ready to become a legitimate religion.
Jennifer Belle author of Going Down Having "grown to tolerate all of New York's degradations," Arthur Nersesian's main character is irresistibly charming, funny, and real. Nersesian's writing, reminding me at times of John Patrick Shanley and Gogol, is beautiful, especially when it is about women and love. The Fuck-Up is a terrific success.
Grid Magazine Not since The Catcher in the Rye, or John Knowles' A Separate Peace, have I read such a beautifully written book.... Nersesian's powerful, sure-footed narrative alone is so believably human in its poignancy... Nersesian mixes "F" trains, lumpy couches, SoHo lofts, dive bars, lonely divorcees, porn theaters, posh brownstones, embezzling employers, ritzy Hard Rock Cafe parties, deceitful, would-be kept starlets, bathroom-stall poetry, free Mercedes-Benzes, and even Mormons. Whew! I couldn't put this book down.
Flipside Fantastically alluring! I cannot recommend this book highly enough!
Paper Nersesian creates a charming everyman whose candor and sure-footed description of his physical surroundings and emotional framework help his tale flow naturally and therefore believably.
Hal Sirowitz author of Mother Said A Trainspotting without drugs, New York style.
Time Out For those who remember that the eighties were as much about destitute grit as they were about the decadent glitz described in the novels of Bret Easton Ellis and Jay McInerney, this book will come as a fast-paced reminder.
Smug Magazine Touted as the bottled essence of early eighties East Village living, The Fuck-Up is, refreshingly, nothing nearly so limited....A cult favorite, I'd say it's ready to become a legitimate religion.
Jennifer Belle author of Going Down Having "grown to tolerate all of New York's degradations," Arthur Nersesian's main character is irresistibly charming, funny, and real. Nersesian's writing, reminding me at times of John Patrick Shanley and Gogol, is beautiful, especially when it is about women and love. The Fuck-Up is a terrific success.
Grid Magazine Not since The Catcher in the Rye, or John Knowles' A Separate Peace, have I read such a beautifully written book.... Nersesian's powerful, sure-footed narrative alone is so believably human in its poignancy... Nersesian mixes "F" trains, lumpy couches, SoHo lofts, dive bars, lonely divorcees, porn theaters, posh brownstones, embezzling employers, ritzy Hard Rock Cafe parties, deceitful, would-be kept starlets, bathroom-stall poetry, free Mercedes-Benzes, and even Mormons. Whew! I couldn't put this book down.
Flipside Fantastically alluring! I cannot recommend this book highly enough!
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
Perhaps the price of comfort is that life passes more rapidly But for anyone who has lived in uneasiness, even for a short, memorable duration, it's a trade-off that will gladly be made. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
Perhaps the price of comfort is that life passes more rapidly But for anyone who has lived in uneasiness, even for a short, memorable duration, it's a trade-off that will gladly be made. Read the first page
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Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
1.0 out of 5 stars
Exceptionally bad.,
By Denny Vu Quach "Denny" (California, GG USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Fuck Up (Paperback)
As another reader notes, this takes a rather tumultuous time and place in NYC -- the Lower East side circa 1985 -- and makes it boring. If you're at all interested in the topic, you should try to get a hold of the long out-of-print anthology, "Between C&D: New Writing from the Lower East Side" or "Love is Strange," both edited by Joel Rose and Catherine Texier. This was a cutting edge magazine, printed on a dot-matrix and distributed in a poly-bag, it published the early works of David Foster Wallace, Tama Jamowitz, Gary Indiana, Patrick McGrath, the late Kathy Acker, Dennis Cooper, Lynne Tillman, Barry Gifford, William Vollman, and many many more. Nersesian can't hold a match to this stuff. There's simply nothing inventive or compelling about his [weak] tale. A waste of money and time.
4.0 out of 5 stars
be glad it's not you,
By
This review is from: The Fuck Up (Paperback)
i have to agree with the other reviewers who said that once they picked up this book they found it nearly impossible to put down (unfortunate for me, being that i work with adolescents and the title itself caused a stir). this book has the ability to draw you into the main character, if only to compare and contrast your life with his, and realize that it can always get worse. i was pretty down when i read this book, and it definitely cheered me up. i think the ending is realistic and believable, though i was sorry to see it end. next on my list is dogrun and manhattan loverboy, both by nersesian.
5.0 out of 5 stars
fantastick,
By Alvi Krishna (Napa, Ca United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Fuck Up (Paperback)
i read this book, like some of you, because it's from the same publisher as the perks of being a wallflower. this book is depressing and makes takes you on the main character's journey to maturity. great allegory and amusing situations. read.
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