Synopses & Reviews
Welcome to the Great American Graffiti Novel
Number one New York Times bestselling author Adam Mansbach returns with a blockbuster tale of revenge, redemption, and the worlds most beautiful crime. Dondi Vance is the son of two famous graffiti artists from New York Citys golden era” of subway bombing. Recently kicked out of his prestigious prep school for selling weedand his mothers Brooklyn apartment for losing his scholarship hes couch-surfing his way through life, compulsively immune to rumors that his long-lost father, Billy Rage, has returned after sixteen years on the lam.
But Dondis old man really is backwhats left of him, that is. A wizened shell of his former self, Billy is still reeling from a psychic attack by an angry sha-man in the Amazon basin when Dondi finds him at the top of a pseudo-magical staircase in DUMBO. The uneasy reunion comes just in time: Anastacio Bracken, the transit cop who ruined Billys life and shattered his crew back in 1987, is running for mayor. Only by rallying the forgotten writers of the eighties for an epic, game-changing mission can Billy and Dondi bring Bracken down.
In this mind-bending journey through a subterranean world of epic heroes, villains, and eccentrics, Adam Mansbach balances an intricately plotted, high-stakes caper with a wildly inventive tale of time travel and shamanism, prodigal fathers and sons, and the hilariously intertwined realms of art, crime, and spirituality. Moving throughout New York Citys unseen communities, from the tunnel camps of the Mole People to the drug dens of Crown Heights, Rage Is Back is a kaleidoscopic tour de force from a writer at the top of his game.
Review
"Mansbach has clearly had a play date with Michael Chabon and Junot Diaz, and his fresh, witty novel is one that hip readers will relish . . . Laced with zaniness and cultural bling."
—Ron Charles, Washington Post
“A rollicking, frenetic and hilarious jaunt through the (literal and figurative) New York City underworld . . . [that] does for graffiti what Michael Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay did for comic books . . . [Rage is Back] mashes up disparate linguistic registers with an effortlessness that brings to mind Junot Diazs perennial narrator, Junior . . . Beneath all the weed and spray paint, its a warmhearted story about a son searching for his father and for himself, a trip through the past and present of an American art form.”
—David Lukas, San Francisco Chronicle
“Mansbachs wild ride will likely earn cult-classic status — and deservedly so . . . In Dondi, Mansbach has created an unforgettable narrator who combines elements of Holden Caulfield, Oscar Wao, and even a hint of Ignatius J. Reilly.”
—Eric Liebetrau, Boston Globe
“Flashing bits of brilliance like a beautifully burned train . . . Mansbach can write with real talent, maybe crazy talent.”
—Kevin Baker, The New York Times Book Review
“A hilarious revenge thriller. . . [that reads] something like watching a Quentin Tarantino film or listening to a Wu-Tang Clan album—perhaps simultaneously. This is a great thing. … Rage Is Back has humor and horror and humanity and is altogether fresh.”
—Kevin Coval, Chicago Tribune
“Exuberant . . . Mansbachs paean to graffiti art . . . has a wild-style collage form that also ties in plot points involving a hallucinogenic vision-quest, the so-called ‘mole people said to live in the citys tunnels, and time travel.”
—The Wall Street Journal
“A muscular ode to New York Citys 1980s art underground . . . Combines a poet's touch with the wild sparks of a subway train speeding through a graffiti-splashed tunnel.”
—Elle Magazine
“Rage Is Back is a gutsy act of cultural nostalgia, full of longing for a vanished New York, a chaotic, colorful city full of graffiti and guerilla art. Adam Mansbach is a fearless, funny, and thoroughly engaging writer.”
—Tom Perrotta, author of Little Children and The Leftovers
“Adam Mansbach's new novel is a trip! A trip through dimensions, drugs, and even an ingenious time machine. Rage is Back is hilarious and insightful, tender and surprising, but best of all it's a tribute to the old heads, the bombers and taggers and the glory of writing in all its forms.”
—Victor LaValle, author of The Devil in Silver and Big Machine
"Rage Is Back is a funny, macho-but-vulnerable coming-of-age-story. Its seeped in New York nostalgia and narrated in bright and vulgar prose that succeeds in hinting at no small quantity of swagger and soul. As Dondi says, ‘its not easy to talk from your heart and out your ass at the same time. Delightfully, Rage Is Back manages to do both."
—Daily Beast
“A bracingly funny book [that] rekindles the golden age of graffiti.”
—Connie Ogle, Miami Herald
"A cacophonous love letter to the old dirty, pre-gentrified New York."
—New York Post
“A fierce and funny thrill ride through the train yards and back streets of the graffiti underground. Mansbach writes with splendid rhythm and intensity.”
—San Jose Mercury News
“A rambunctious ride through graffiti culture, filled with magical moments and outlandish situations . . . Like Tarantino, Mansbach has an ear for hip-hop.”
—Charles Ealy, Austin American-Statesman
“Unfolding like a fever dream of an impossible return to graffiti-era New York, Mansbachs Rage Is Back delivers a mind-bending journey through a subterranean world of epic heroes and villains, and is already being called “the great American graffiti novel.” A must-read for the literate hip-hop head.”
—OkayPlayer
Review
“Rage Is Back is a gutsy act of cultural nostalgia, full of longing for a vanished New York, a chaotic, colorful city full of graffiti and guerilla art. Adam Mansbach is a fearless, funny, and thoroughly engaging writer.”
—Tom Perrotta, author of Little Children and The Leftovers
“Adam Mansbach's new novel is a trip! A trip through dimensions, drugs, and even an ingenious time machine. Rage is Back is hilarious and insightful, tender and surprising, but best of all it's a tribute to the old heads, the bombers and taggers and the glory of writing in all its forms.”
—Victor LaValle, author of The Devil in Silver and Big Machine
“Adam Mansbachs Rage is Back is a profound reminder of why fiction matters. A riotous and propulsive read, this darkly poetic novel took me places I could never get to with my own two feet, and introduced me to souls living colorfully outside the mainstream. Behind its street boy pose is an ambitious novel about family, friendship and the ties that bind. Mansbach makes it look easy.”
—Attica Locke, author of Blackwater Rising and The Cutting Season
“Adam Mansbachs Rage is Back is a great, raucous ride—a lament for the hypocrisy of the present, as well as an ode to a lost NYC of the Eighties, where street art and cultural chaos were in constant struggle against greed and corruption. The voice of the narrator—melancholy and hilarious, acerbic and wise—leaps out from page one, grabs you and doesnt let go.”
—Danzy Senna, author of Caucasia
“An ambitious and immersive look into the New York graffiti scene. A finely detailed, richly colored work drawn with an artful hand.”
—Chuck Hogan, author of The Town
“Adam has given us a lush tale of time travel, mysticism, justice, the adventures of a boy and his dad—woven into the fabric of a bygone era in NYC. Rage Is Back is fresh, compelling and nostalgic all at once—a must for lovers of graf culture and those of us who lived it. A great read.”
—Pharoahe Monch
Review
“Hits the ground running and never stops . . . Mansbachs sharp and edgy style carries this fresh story in and out of subway tunnels and through the grimiest neighborhoods of New York, bringing the New York of now and then together in full relief.” —Heather Paulson, Booklist
“Thrilling . . . Electric with rhythm . . . The book is peppered with grandfatherly revolutionaries, slang-slinging young bloods and an army of paint-wielding ninjas who unite with military precision on an ambitious plan to graffiti-bomb every single train car on the MTA.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“Slick, outlandish . . . Mansbachs novel is a fun and exciting read.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Carlos Castaneda meets underground New York with a subway tunnel sensibility . . . Sure to be a cult classic and cause a stir.”
—Library Journal
Review
Praise for Go The F**k To Sleep:
“Total genius.”
—Jonathan Lethem, author of Motherless Brooklyn, father of two
“A childrens book for grown-ups! I really did laugh out loud—hilarious!”
—David Byrne, musician, father of one
Praise for The End of the Jews:
“A beautiful, funny, heartbreaking book that manages to take on art, love, identity, class anxiety, being Jewish, and wishing you were black. Very few writers could have attempted all this without farcical results. Adam Mansbach succeeds, brilliantly. The End of the Jews is an intense, painful, poignant book.”
-The Boston Globe
“Smart and cynical.”
-The New York Times
“Mansbach has made something new of the multigenerational Jewish epic; this is far more tough-minded reading than we are used to on the subject. I dont love Jews any less for it, and neither does Mansbach, but I do know us better for what we are. This is a heartfelt, truthful book.”
—Keith Gessen, author of All the Sad Young Literary Men
Praise for Angry Black White Boy:
"The book's careening parable feels like a more multiculturally aware equivalent to the literary provocations of older cult author Chuck Palahniuk, with its wild plot hooks, credibly eccentric characters and trenchant apocalyptic comedy.... ingenious street-dance-slash-mime stylized movement [and] occasional recorded snippets mesh with the cast's rapping, human beatboxing, singing and keyboarding -- all cleverly driving the narrative forward rather than overpowering it."
—Variety
“Startling, subversive, and raucous, Angry Black White Boy is a novel about how we became who we are, and why thats not good enough.”
—Daniel Alarcón, author of War by Candlelight
“With this brutal, hilarious, and tragic novel, Adam Mansbach proves once again he is one of the most ambitious, insightful, and daring writers of our generation.”
—Jeff Chang, author of Cant Stop Wont Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation
“Angry Black White Boy is full of hilariously twisted racial politics. Adam Mansbach is like a wigger Ishmael Reed running wild through the world of hip hop.”
—Touré, author of Soul City
“An insanely smart novel that pulls no punches . . . wild, comic, and dark.” —Percival Everett, author of Erasure
Synopsis
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Go the F*** to Sleep, a rollicking, frenetic and hilarious jaunt (San Francisco Chronicle) and anAmazon Best Book of the Month
Raised in the shadow of two graffiti legends from New York s golden era of subway bombing, Dondi Vance is less than thrilled to learn his father, Billy Rage, is back after sixteen years on the lam. But the transit cop who ruined Billy s life and shattered his crew is running for mayor and must be brought down. Welcome to the Great American Graffiti Novel."
Synopsis
From the #1
New York Times bestselling author of Go the
F*** to Sleep, a rollicking, frenetic and hilarious jaunt” (San Francisco Chronicle)
Raised in the shadow of two graffiti legends from New Yorks golden era” of subway bombing, Dondi Vance is less than thrilled to learn his father, Billy Rage, is back after sixteen years on the lam. But the transit cop who ruined Billys life and shattered his crew is running for mayorand must be brought down. Welcome to the Great American Graffiti Novel.
About the Author
Adam Mansbach s books include the number one international bestseller Go the Fuck to Sleep, the California Book Awardwinning novel The End of the Jews, and the cult classic Angry Black White Boy. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times Book Review, Esquire, and The Believer, and on National Public Radios All Things Considered.