Black History Month
Used, New, and Out of Print Books - We Buy and Sell - Powell's Books
Cart |
|  my account  |  wish list  |  help   |  800-878-7323
Hello, | Login
MENU
  • Browse
    • New Arrivals
    • Bestsellers
    • Award Winners
    • Signed Preorders
    • Signed Editions
    • Digital Audio Books
    • Newsletters
    • See All Subjects
  • Used
  • Staff Picks
    • Staff Picks
    • Picks of the Month
    • Staff Top Fives 2018
    • Boox
    • Indiespensable
    • 25 Books From the 21st Century
    • 25 Memoirs to Read Before You Die
    • 25 Global Books to Read Before You Die
    • 25 Women to Read Before You Die
    • 25 Books to Read Before You Die
  • Gifts + Gift Cards
    • Gift Cards & eGift Cards
    • Powell's Souvenirs
    • Read Rise Resist Gear
    • Journals & Notebooks
    • Games
    • Socks
  • Sell Books
    • Sell Books Online
    • Sell Books in Our Stores
  • Blog
  • Events
  • Find A Store
McAfee Secure

Don't Miss

  • Black History Month
  • BOOX #13: Planting Stories
  • Dr. Seuss Sale
  • In Brief: Essays Sale
  • 22 Books We Can't Wait to Read
  • Staff Top Fives:
    Our Favorite Books of 2018
  • Libro.fm Audiobooks

Visit Our Stores


Powell's Books: Portrait of a Bookseller: Gordon P. (0 comment)
I'm a Used Book Buyer. I get to sort through books and pick out the best ones for our shelves...
Read More»
  • Powell's Books: Powell's Picks Spotlight: Valeria Luiselli's 'Lost Children Archive' (0 comment)
  • Sophia Shalmiyev: Sophia Shalmiyev's Playlist for 'Mother Winter' (0 comment)

{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##

Sketchtasy

by Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore
Sketchtasy

  • Comment on this title
  • Synopses & Reviews
  • Read Q&A

ISBN13: 9781551527291
ISBN10: 1551527294
Condition: Like New


All Product Details

View Larger ImageView Larger Images
$14.50
Used Trade Paperback
Ships in 1 to 3 days
Add to Cart
Add to Wishlist
QtyStore
1Burnside

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments

Meet Alexa: a resilient twenty-one-year-old queen who lives without rules or apologies.

Sketchtasy takes place in that late-night moment when everything comes together, and everything falls apart — it’s an urgent, glittering, devastating novel about the perils of queer world-making in the mid-‘90s.

This is Boston in 1995, a city defined by a rabid fear of difference. Alexa, an incisive twenty-one-year-old queen, faces everyday brutality with determined nonchalance. Rejecting middle-class pretensions, she negotiates past and present traumas with a scathing critique of the world. Drawn to the ecstasy of drugged-out escapades, Alexa searches for nourishment in a gay culture bonded by clubs and conformity, willful apathy, and the specter of AIDS. Is there any hope for communal care?

Sketchtasy brings 1990s gay culture startlingly back to life, as Alexa and her friends grapple with the impact of growing up at a time when desire and death are intertwined. With an intoxicating voice and unruly cadence, this is a shattering, incandescent novel that conjures the pain and pageantry of struggling to imagine a future.

Review

"Every sentence in Sketchtasy is a living thing, fierce and funny and a little bit dangerous — a voice made of coke dust and club lights, cut with crackling insight. I was completely addicted to the story of Alexa's search for connection, set in the gritty Boston nightclub scene in the 90s. Nobody writes like Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore — most writers wouldn't dare try." Julie Buntin, author of Marlena

Review

"If there's any justice in this world, Sketchtasy will become the definitive novel of life in Boston ... It slyly trades 1990s nostalgia for a queer narrative that is mesmerizing and heartbreaking all at once." The Millions

Review

"Sketchtasy is a powerful firecracker of a novel; it's not just one of the best books of the year, it's an instant classic of queer literature." NPR ("Best Books of 2018")

Review

"If Sketchtasy doesn't become a classic, we are doomed. Mattilda has such complete command of craft here that she is able to evoke experience rather than simply describe it. Whether or not we identify with her characters, she lets us into their hearts and perceptions through sheer talent, raw honesty, and the sophisticated ability to handle word order, duration, pacing, and soul. The form of this novel is determined organically from the emotions at their core. A lesson in how to write, how to remember, how to grapple with history." Sarah Schulman, author of Conflict Is Not Abuse

Review

"I thought it was impossible that Sycamore could get any better, but Sketchtasy is a vivid masterpiece that rivals the likes of Last Exit to Brooklyn by Hubert Selby Jr. It's dangerous, hilarious, scary, and trancendentally beautiful. Sycamore's prose is so searing, you might want to read it with sunglasses." Jake Shears, singer, author of Boys Keep Swinging

About the Author

Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore is the award-winning author of a memoir and three novels, and the editor of five non-fiction anthologies. Her memoir The End of San Francisco won a Lambda Literary Award, and her most recent anthology, Why Are Faggots So Afraid of Faggots?, was an American Library Association Stonewall Honor Book. Sketchtasy is her third novel.

Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore on PowellsBooks.Blog

Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore I like to say that Sketchtasy is a novel that takes place in that late-night moment when everything comes together, and everything falls apart. This is Boston in 1995, a city defined by a rabid fear of difference — Alexa, an incisive 21-year-old queen, faces everyday brutality with determined nonchalance...

Read More»


What Our Readers Are Saying

Be the first to share your thoughts on this title!




Product Details

ISBN:
9781551527291
Binding:
Trade Paperback
Publication date:
10/16/2018
Publisher:
ARSENAL PULP PRESS
Pages:
256
Height:
.80IN
Width:
5.90IN
Author:
Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore

Ships free on qualified orders.
Add to Cart
$14.50
List Price:$17.95
Used Trade Paperback
Ships in 1 to 3 days
Add to Wishlist
QtyStore
1Burnside

More copies of this ISBN

  • Signed, New, Trade Paperback, $17.95
  • New, Trade Paperback, $17.95
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Tumblr
  • Instagram

  • Help
  • Guarantee
  • My Account
  • Careers
  • About Us
  • Security
  • Wish List
  • Partners
  • Contact Us
  • Shipping
  • Newsletters
  • Sitemap
  • © 2019 POWELLS.COM Terms
  • 800-878-7323

{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##