Cain's Book: Amazon.ca: Alexander Trocchi: Books

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This is the journal of Joe Necchi, a junkie living on a barge that plies the rivers and bays of New York. Joe's world is the half-world of drugs and addicts--the world of furtive fixes in sordid Harlem apartments, of police pursuits down deserted subway stations. Junk for Necchi, however, is a tool, freely chosen and fully justified; he is Cain, the malcontent, the profligate, the rebel who lives by no one's rules but his own. Like DeQuincey and Baudelaire before him, Trocchi's muse was drugs. But unlike his literary predecessors, in his roman a clef, Trocchi never romanticizes the source of his inspiration. If the experience of heroin, of the "fix," is central to Cain's Book, both its destructive force and the possibilities for creativity it creates are recognized and accepted without apology.

"Cain's Book is the classic of the late-1950s account of heroin addiction.... An un-self-forgiving existentialism, rendered with writerly exactness and muscularity, set this novel apart from all others of the genre."--William S. Burroughs

"Trocchi, especially in this, his masterpiece, along with writers such as William Burroughs, taught me that writers do not make up stories but attempt to find the truth."--Kathy Acker

"Cain's Book is a High Priest's raging celebration of the iron-in-the-soul, American style. The book is a literary landmark; it is probably the last great piece of writing in a classic linear format."--Terry Southern

"Cain's Book is a treasure."--Ken Kesey

"It is true, it has art, it is brave."--Norman Mailer

"Alexander Trocchi was a major figure in cosmopolitan new-consciousness fifties' and sixties' literature, and Cain's Book is his signal novel."--Allen Ginsberg

"Can't write about writing so will simply say that I find it excellent, very strong and moving--all the visual writing in particular--it seems to me of the highest order."--Samuel Beckett

Alexander Trocchi was born in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1925. During the 1950s and 1960s he lived mainly in Paris and New York and gained fame as one of the most talented writers, in both prose and poetry, of the period. In addition, he, along with Richard Seaver and Austryn Wainhouse, edited Merlin, one of the most noted literary journals of its day, which published works by Ionesco, Beckett, Sartre and others. At the same time he was actively involved in the operations of the famed Olympia Press, and produced a number of pornographic novels for that publishing house. Although the autobiographical Cain's Book became a best-seller, after its publication Trocchi's work was largely limited to short stories (including the collection The Outsiders) and poetry (including the volume Man at Leisure.) He never completed another novel and died in 1984. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

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8 Reviews

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5.0 out of 5 stars the-HERO-IN-side of us all, April 30 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Cain's Book (Paperback)

It was one of the definative founders of the Beat Generation who defined the term as: "Someone who can upon arrival score dope on a streetcorner in any foreign city without knowing the language in a relatively short amount of time", such was the exemplar: Alexander Trocchi, a bonafide "Cosmonaut of the interior" who has remained underground amongst the public altho Cain's Book is a veritable Book of Genesis in the unrepentant world of the proponents of heroin (the-hero-in-side-of-us-all)...I believe the book can only be fully fathomed by one of its own, and that any attempt at critical analysis (in any concentrated area besides linguistics and historical antecedents) will fall flat on its face from an overdose of misinterpretation as cultural relativity here relies upon narcotic initiation & adepthood. "INVIOABLE" is the greatest interpretation of narcotica ever devised with Trocchi as its herald. To laymen no doubt it would seem a glorification, not unjustified but perhaps dangerous, yet Trocchi shows us his heart as well as his arms; His sincerity is the measure of his success as much as his prose is imbued with all the charisma of a literary outlaw making the book a garden of eden for lovers of highly-stylized literature to prance through uninhibited by serpents and blood-apples. The book cannot be compared with W.S. Burrough's "Junky" which in his words is straightforward hard-boiled detective journalism not aimed at literary greatness; "Interzone" is the closest comparable work if your looking for such a summation, but Trocchi here exceeds WSB in everyway, not that there was ever any competition involved in Cain's Book's history, except in its ability to slay all that would be "Able" to match it in scope of intensity and truth. Literary references abound, Kafka's "Burrow" being a most memorable analogy for drug addiction's isolation. The book blends a disturbing surrealism with at preferable times stark naked realism. More than a literary picnic it's a veritable "naked feast" for those hungry for underworldly experience at a somewhat hypocritical safe distance; but no blame exists in such a world as Trocchi's, where pain is noblely accepted and suffering's accordingly annihilated by the supremacy of narcotics; a most merciful God so long as its followers remain loyally and necessarily criminally devoted to obtaining their metamorphic substenance; and likewise the strictest satanus if they fail to do so, in a way, worship this slave-God... Famous among the famous, a "writer's writer", Beat generation legend, composer of metaphysical pornography, a hero amongst the Situationalists, a universal phenonemon with "wanted" posters slung all across Europas and Americas, Alex Trocchi's Cain's Book will be the one book he will be remembered for, even though his "Insurrection of a Million Minds" is a landmark collection of autobiographical social philosophy, his "Yound Adam" an acknowledged erotic classic, and his cosmic sex-thrillers from Olympia Press the stuff of legend in the genre; Cain's Book will forever champion the-HERO-IN-side-of-us-all, even when the war on drugs is killing us, Trocchi will remain, INVIOABLE.

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5.0 out of 5 stars the-HERO-IN-side-of-us-all, April 27 2001

By	Anita Fix "anitafix" (Alcazar in the Land of Enchantment) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cain's Book (Paperback)

As a matter of serious concern regards this rare jewel in the lotus THIS BOOK BEARS NO COMPARISON WITH W.S.BURROUGH"S "JUNKY" which in WSB's words is merely an attempt at hard-boiled detective work by an addict; not (!) a serious literary work aiming at anything besides getting down on paper the quite dull exoteric truth about what is perhaps the hardest job in a world of unmanagable professional addictions being that narcotic hell of withdrawal and the constant 24 hour a day big business of NARCOTICS, best summed up as "the high-cost of low-life living" WSB was lucky enough to be able to partially support his ape-size habit via an inheritance...ALL of WSB's other works(besides "Queer") ruthlessly explore and expose the world run rampant by CONTROL, with NARCOTIC ADDICTION as metaphor for all planetary existence...which is more along the tracks of Cosmonaut ALEXANDER TROCCHI intentions (and success), who I predict will one day like WSB become a more public legend, which his miraculous and exemplary life and works are worthy of...his metaphysical pornographic erotica is the stuff of such legends already (see White Thighs, Young Adam, Thongs) the blood of which is rushing to the center of literary underground stardom making hard the various body parts of so many seekers after the darker side of beat exploration...'The Beat Generation" was once summed up by themselves as "The ability of standing on a streetcorner in any foriegn city in the world and being able to score in a relatively short amount of time"...Alex Trocchi was such a man and it is in this sense along with the people he knew that he bears relation to beat objectives (the objectives of critics, not the worldwide artisians themselves) Trocchi was a world phenonemon, carousing the globe always artistic and ever active...he is a supreme example of one whose life WAS their art, and if there is any blame laid against him for being a junky for the greater part of his existence then I merely refer those people to the couple hundred thousand or so heroin addicts of the terrestial globe and ask them to account for what art they have produced to match in quality (not quantity) what Trocchi has done with just Cain's Book alone (with "ABLE" beaten to a pulp fiction novel decaying in some distant outhouse being put to use in its ultimate function) I've re-read the novel several times and found myself under its influence, literally tasting the cyanide-like flavor explode in my mouth as when he describes how junkies love to watch others get high by the almost nauseous wave when the eyes slit and the jaw drops to the floor and they say "hit" (given of course they have theirs marked out by two little x's already positioned in pupils the size of a matchtips)...the books descriptions of heroin's gripping obsessive way of life in no way sum up this masterpiece of novel narcotica literature; rare feats of prose are planted like explosives all over the text and the sense of people and place is overwhelming in it's strict realist description of very sober prose revealing more than just poetics, but Trocchi's philosophy itself inside the narrative...I think Trocchi's greatest gift is his utter SINCERITY---which is the first judgement to be made of so intimate a subject as a man's sufferings in the Dostoevskian underground arena Trocchi inhabited the planet over...It is in a very great and noble tradition Trocchi participates in, literary references abounding throughout; the foremost in my mind being the comparison with Kafka's "Burrow", the relation of such a secret underground way of life dictated by fear, in this case fear of running out of dope primarily, along with all human fear, including the "lack for nothing" of existential hells...As regards Trocchi's false qualifications concerning fame, suffice it to say he was chums with Beckett, Burroughs,Ginsberg,everybody associated with the Olympia Press===champion pioneer publishers of Naked Lunch, Tropic of Cancer, on and on goes the list like some supreme stripper teasing the pant(ies)s off the literary establishment---just read the quotes on back of the book and you will get an idea of how influential Cain's Book has been in the life and works of all variety of literary genius, the famous among the famous, and rightly-so, as one cannot champion such rare integrity in a master enough. Once you've gotten your literary fix with this one find an edition of "Invisible Insurrection of a Million Minds" for more, as well as "Alexander Trocchi: The Makings Of A Monster" which is a biography of his exemplary existence. Like Burroughs, Artaud, Crowley, Baudelaire, Witkacy, Alex Trocchi's writing on drugs in reference to his autobiographically lived life and subsequent works, are famous not just amongst artists but are devoured by addicts as well, and in some cases, both. Such was the man that he is still getting total strangers HIGH worldwide.

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4.0 out of 5 stars Trocchi's Junk Manifesto, May 19 2000

By	Tara (miller place, ny United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cain's Book (Paperback)

The sporadic bursts of description are luscious, but what hits me is his lucid analysis of America's growth-stunted approach to drugs and addicts. A truth teller.

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Most recent customer reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting and thought provoking
Alexander Trocchi's first novel was an interesting work that differed from his later novels, yet displayed his innovative style. Read more

Published on Dec 16 1999 by Aaron Bouschor

5.0 out of 5 stars This is NOT 'Junky!'
I came across this book through a friend, just looking for some quick fiction to read. And it was a quick read- but also one of the best books i have ever read. Read more

Published on Nov 5 1999 by jon dunn (jodunn@vassar.edu)

2.0 out of 5 stars somewhat entertaining but highly dissapointing
It was an easy read which kept me temporarily occupied but I soon grew bored, looking foward to the end. If you felt that William S. Read more

Published on Feb 26 1999

4.0 out of 5 stars Accurate description of life as a junkie in N.Y.
This book is different from the other books of Trocchi's that I have read. The others have dealt more specifically with sex.

Published on Jul 21 1998 by David Bechtold (dbech@group1.com)