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The Motel Life: A Novel (P.S.)
by Willy Vlautin
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About This Book
ISBN13: 9780061171116 |
Powells.com Staff Pick
Vlautin is a natural. He's managed to craft a debut novel that is funny, sad, uplifting, and honest, in a voice that seems effortless and yet leaves room for both the imagination of the reader and the growth of the writer. Vlautin is the kind of author you fall in love with, the kind you know you'll be reading for the rest of your life.
Recommended by Kevin, Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
Publisher Comments:
With "echoes of Of Mice and Men"(The Bookseller, UK), The Motel Life explores the frustrations and failed dreams of two Nevada brothers — on the run after a hit-and-run accident — who, forgotten by society, and short on luck and hope, desperately cling to the edge of modern life.
Review:
"In a gritty debut, Vlautin explores a few weeks in the broken lives of two working-class brothers, Frank and Jerry Lee Flannigan, who abruptly ditch their Reno motel after Jerry Lee drunkenly kills a boy on a bicycle in a hit-and-run. The two are case studies in hard luck: their mother died when they were 14 and 16, respectively; their father is an ex-con deadbeat; neither finished high school. Frank has had just one girlfriend, motel neighbor Annie, whose mother is an abusive prostitute. An innocent simpleton, Jerry Lee is left feeling suicidal after the accident, despite his younger brother's efforts ( la Of Mice and Men's Lenny and George) to console him: 'It was real quiet, the way he cried,' says Frank, 'like he was whimpering.' On returning to Reno, an eventual reckoning awaits them. Vlautin's coiled, poetically matter-of-fact prose calls to mind S.E. Hinton — a writer well-acquainted with male misfit protagonists seeking redemption, no matter how destructive. Despite the bleak story and its inevitably tragic ending, Vlautin, who plays in the alt-country band Richmond Fontaine, transmits a quiet sense of resilience and hopefulness." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)
Review:
"This guy writes like the secret love child of Raymond Carver and Flannery O'Connor — just plain, true, tough, irony-free, heartrending American fiction about people living in the third-world sections of our country. It's a book that makes you feel like you've been shot but will probably recover." Michael Gruber
Review:
"Full of tenderness, and truth and life. I haven't read a novel this good in a long, long time." Guillermo Arriaga, Academy Award nominated screenwriter of Babel and 21 Grams
Review:
"The Motel Life is that rare beast: a book with the cadence of an old, well-loved song. Sad, haunting, and strangely beautiful." John Connolly
Review:
"A brilliant read-in-one-sitting novel, so simple, so spare and so honest." David Peace, author GB84 and The Red Riding Quartet
Review:
"A hugely compassionate, wildly original road movie of a novel about two brothers, Frank and Jerry, who are trying to escape the ramifications of a fatal hit-and-run accident. The warm-hearted folksy balladeer proves he’s just as much at home on the printed page as he is behind a mic, with detailed yet understated drawings complementing the tale." Esquire (UK)
About the Author
Willy Vlautin is a member of the internationally acclaimed band Richmond Fontaine. he lives in Portland, Oregon.
What Our Readers Are Saying
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Average customer rating based on 1 comment:
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bryandonwhite, August 1, 2007 (view all comments by bryandonwhite)
This is an incredible novel. I don't read much fiction these days, but I ran with a current member of Richmond Fontaine years ago, and my boss recommended and lent this book to me.
I read it on the bus, and particularly in the evenings, when fatigued, worried what would happen if I burst into tears after laughing out loud in some passages. Would fellow passengers think I was crazy?
The critical reviews are right - this is an honest book, a hard and yet compassionate book, and truly American in its style.
One particular stylistic reference (that goes against the Americana comment I've already made, I guess): Willy pulls some very cool story-within-a-story stuff in this book, not unlike some of Celine's narrative distractions, that allow the author the freedom to briefly explore even looser, less edited territory than the already unfiltered narrative of the main thread. Very few authors that I have experienced pull this off as well as it appears in this book.
Product Details
- ISBN:
- 9780061171116
- Author:
- Publisher:
- Harper Perennial
- Author:
- Subject:
- General
- Subject:
- Literary
- Subject:
- Brothers
- Subject:
- United states
- Subject:
- General Fiction
- Edition Description:
- Paperback
- Series:
- P.S.
- Publication Date:
- May 2007
- Binding:
- Paperback
- Grade Level:
- General/trade
- Language:
- English
- Illustrations:
- Y
- Pages:
- 206
- Dimensions:
- 7.94x5.34x.56 in. .39 lbs.
