Synopses & Reviews
Violence, Nudity, Adult Content is the story of William Riordan, a young lawyer at a Wall Street law firm faced with two disturbing cases. Asked to defend a wealthy client accused of murdering his wife, Riordan approaches the case with the cool distance and skepticism that has fueled his rise to success. But his protective covering begins to disintegrate when he receives several sexually provocative e-mails from his other important client, the victim of a brutal rape. The full cost of his emotional shutdown hits home when his wife and the mother of his two children asks for a divorce.
Riordan's efforts to meet the professional and personal challenges that turn his life upside down make for a riveting and lyrical tale. Violence, Nudity, Adult Content is as suspenseful as a Scott Turow legal thriller and as dramatic and incisive as the best work of Russell Banks and Lorrie Moore -- a book alternately erotic, funny, frightening, and beautiful. It stands as a revelatory novel about morality, justice, contemporary manners, and the long, hard road to personal redemption.
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Baltimore Sun A novel of unusual energy and intensity....Passaro's pace is crackling....His command of language and his surgical imagery are masterful. The novel's core is redemption of life as having meaning.
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Janet Maslin The New York Times A lacerating debut novel...Passaro minutely and cleverly dissects every aspect of his characters' lives.
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Newsday Violence, Nudity, Adult Content is part story of domestic turmoil, part moral meditation, part legal thriller, part New York reverie, part collection of verbal riffs.
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The New York Times Book Review A grippingŠportrait of how we live today.
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Los Angeles Times Violence, Nudity, Adult Content is not only a novel about urban rage, it's also a novel about tenderness and where to find it.
Synopsis
Will Riordan, lawyer, husband, and father, is a modern man, and this is the story of his awakening and return to humanity -- a powerful tale of New York City and of modern faith, family, and redemption.
About the Author
Vince Passaro's essays, fiction, and criticism have appeared in many national magazines and journals, including Esquire, GQ, The New York Times Sunday Magazine, and Harper's Magazine, where he is a contributing editor. He lives with his wife and three children in New York City. Violence, Nudity, Adult Content is his first novel.