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Original Essays | November 5, 2009

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More copies of this ISBN:

Lenny Bruce is Dead

by Jonathan Goldstein

Lenny Bruce is Dead Cover

ISBN13: 9781552450697
ISBN10: 1552450694
Condition: Standard
All Product Details

Only 2 left in stock at $12.50!

Staff Pick

Goldstein, a former fixture on the Montreal spoken word scene, delivers a disjointed blast of fictions (is it a novel, are they "deep thoughts," are they short stories??) with Lenny Bruce is Dead. The bite-sized chapters are full of skewed observations told in a very entertaining style akin to Hal Sirowitz (or as poetically bold as Jeffrey McDaniel) as they chronicle a horny young Jewish man in a world of ambitious failures. Goldstein, who is now a producer for PRI's This American Life, has written a compulsively readable gem and hopefully we'll see more from him in the future.
Recommended by Kevin Sampsell, Powell's City of Books

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

At McDonald?s, when I?m throwing out the stuff on my tray, there?s a point where I get scared that my wallet could have been on there, too. I always think, as everything is tumbling into the garbage, that I might have tossed my wallet on the tray and forgotten. It always feels possible.

So begins Jonathan Goldstein?s first novel, Lenny Bruce is Dead. It?s the story of Joshua, a young man who?s uncertain about a lot more than the possible loss of his wallet. He might as well be talking about his whole life. Josh is having a hard time finding his way in the world; deciding on a career and keeping a girlfriend are too much to handle, not to mention the fact that after the death of his mother he has moved back into his childhood suburban home to be with his father, Chick. Oh, and then there?s the arrival of the Moschiach (inventor of the infamous Love Lotion) to further complicate things.

Lenny Bruce Is Dead walks a tightrope between being searingly funny and poignant ? you?ll laugh, you?ll cry, you?ll long for Love Lotion (and a Moschiach of your own). And you won?t forget Josh ? ineptitude, scatological neuroses, urban angst, self-deprecating humour and all.

Review:

"Josh, the confused, creative, obsessive ladies' man at the center of Lenny Bruce is Dead, is a neurotic antihero as funny and compelling as the ones Mordecai Richler and Philip Roth used to dream up, but funnier and more compelling. With dazzling sentences and deadpan humour, Jonathan Goldstein guides us throught the odd moments and keen observations that make up Josh's gonowhere life: old men at the Burger Zoo demand hardboiled eggs for breakfast and beautiful girls bike through the earlymorning streets of Montreal in their pyjamas, a toothbrush clenched between their teeth. With Lenny Bruce, Goldstein puts the tour back in tour de force." Paul Tough, editor of Open Letters

Review:

"This is an assured, completely original debut from a writer to be reckoned with..." Kevin Connolly, eye

Review:

"One wishes Lenny Bruce is Dead a long life." Kevin Chong, The National Post

Product Details

ISBN:
9781552450697
Author:
Goldstein, Jonathan
Publisher:
Coach House
Location:
Toronto, Ont.
Subject:
General
Subject:
Literary
Subject:
Fiction
Copyright:
Edition Number:
1st ed.
Edition Description:
1433340
Series Volume:
I-2741
Publication Date:
March 25, 2001
Binding:
Paperback
Language:
English
Pages:
155
Dimensions:
7.76x5.74x.54 in. .55 lbs.

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