Synopses & Reviews
Lost Joy is a scintillating collection of the tracts and manifestoes that first brought Camden Joy to public attention in the mid-1990s, when he flyposted his rants all over New York City, protesting the commodification of rock and roll. His stance: angry and mocking, incantatory yet razor sharp, ironic but sincere, drew on the work of earlier, then neglected rock writers (Lester Bangs, Patti Smith, Richard Meltzer), as well as prefiguring the hipster uprising of more recent years.
Lost Joy also includes some of Joys early stories (which appeared in zines and self-published chapbooks as well in as more high-profile outlets such as SPIN and the Village Voice); in these, musicians and music play important roles in fictional works that reveal much about how we use music to express our emotions and explore our memories: a technique Joy pioneered that has been widely adopted in contemporary fiction.
Smart and unorthodox social marketing (mostly Twitter) combined with serious mainstream press coverage will ensure a keen new audience for Joys work.
Review
"I cant think of another writer who writes so resonantly about the emotional and intellectual consequences of being a discriminating devotee of popular music." from the foreword by Dennis Cooper
One of the countrys most original music writers." Ira Glass
I know of no one who writes with more passion and more soul.” Dave Eggers
Synopsis
A scintillating collection of the tracts and manifestoes that first brought Camden Joy public attention in the mid-1990s, when he wheat-pasted his rants all over New York City, taunting the moribund, out-of-touch record industry, celebrating the unsung geniuses of rock and roll. His style angry and mocking, ecstatic yet razor sharp, both satirical and sincere - had its roots in the indie world of 'zines and DIY-publishing; his incantatory voice swiftly earned Joy comparisons to Allen Ginsburg, Patti Smith, Lester Bangs, and Greil Marcus.
Lost Joy also includes Joys early stories, in which musicians and music play important roles in fiction that reveal much about how we use music to express our emotions and explore our memories: a technique Joy pioneered that has since been widely adopted in contemporary literature.
Synopsis
Lost Joy collects the writing that first brought Camden Joy wide attention in the mid-90s, when he wheatpasted his manifestoes” around New York, excoriating the music industry and celebrating unsung geniuses of rock and roll. Joys voiceheartfelt, mocking, lyrical, razor-sharpearned comparisons to the likes of Allen Ginsberg, Patti Smith, and Nick Hornby. Rooted in DIY zine culture, his rants prefigure the unfettered public expression of personal views that would explode with the rise of the Internet, and enact in words what Banksy would later achieve in art. Joys groundbreaking early fiction, in which his characters often invoke musicians and songs, is also included here. These haunting stories explore the many ways in which we use music to communicate our feelings and make sense of our memories.
About the Author
Camden Joy is the author of two novels, The Last Rock Star Book, or: Liz Phair, a Rant and Boy Island; and three novellas, Hubcap Diamondstar Halo, Palm Tree 13, and Pan (republished in one volume as 3 Novellas); as well as numerous manifestoes, tracts, and other rants, many of which are included in the collection Lost Joy. Jonathan Lethem is the New York Times best-selling author of nine novels, most recently Dissident Gardens.