On the strength of his first two books, On Tour with Rita and A Short History of the Island of Butterflies, Nicholas Christopher made a name for himself as one of our most accomplished poets; now he is marking out new territory on the edgy borderline between poetry and fiction. In his novella in verse, Desperate Characters, Christopher takes us down into the startling emptiness of present-day Los Angeles: a town where danger -- in odd and unanticipated guises -- lurks behind every turn; where everyone is a stranger, everything is drenched in a phantasmic phosphorescent glow, and the logic and rhythm of dreams dictates reality.
Desperate Characters' second-person narrator prowls the nightclubs and high-visibility watering-holes of this hypnotic underworld, protected by Stella -- his bodyguard in name and spirit -- and pursued by a mysterious woman whose face and name are unknown. But neither he nor she is acting entirely autonomously. Is what follows reality, madness, or only a momentary hallucination induced by the sun's glare?
With its blend of menace and allure, Desperate Characters ism, in the words of the noted poet Anthony Hecht, "really astonishing....the great American tradition that seems to recall both Ian Fleming and Nathaneal West in a rich and sensation concoction." It is complemented her by a recent selection of the dramatic monologues, character sketches, and haunting lyrics for which Nicholas Christopher has already been celebrated. The combination is as potent as it is dangerous, and establishes its author as one of our most gifted and original writers.
"Nicholas Christopher...is by far, the most gifted and inspiring new
poet I have read in the past fifteen years. His range is perhaps the most impressive
aspect of this book...that is, the title poem (or "novella") should
find an audience far larger than the typical book of poems. It is accessible
to any literate fan of rock-and-roll, or jazz, or detective fiction -- without
compromising its literary integrity. meanwhile, in the occasional poems of
the book's second part, he shows his gifts as a pure poet...elegant, tough,
and lyrical. He is comfortable evoking either city or country scenes -- Lower
Broadway or Port-au-Prince -- all with imagery of remarkable grace and force."
--Jim Carroll
"Desperate Characters moves by startling leaps and bounds, its each and
every turn a near-total surprise to the reader. Nicholas Christopher has composed
an intriguing psychedelic fantasy, based on a most unusual synthesis of the
demands of narrative and those of free verse."
--Madison Smartt Bell
"If Proust had written The Lady from Shanghai, this might be it."
--Howard Moss
"Desperate Characters is quite something, a kind of liqueur of Pynchon,
which I couldn't put down."
--James Merrill
Desperate Characters is a dazzling volume. The long title poem is really astonishing...in the great American Hollywood tradition that seems to recall Ian Fleming and Nathaneal West in a rich and sensational concoction. As in earlier poems of Mr. Christopher's...the whole thing moves with such superb pace and fluidity, [with] such brilliant eccentricities, that a three-ring circus bewilderment is only part of its charm. It is a tour de force...a stunning book."