Manhattan Loverboy

Manhattan Loverboy
Author: Arthur Nersesian
Publisher: Akashic Books
Total Pages: 146
Release: 2000-07-01
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1888451092

A paranoid delusion and fantastic comedy in the service of social realism. This is the tale of an orphan whose only known background is that of the city itself, a scaffold-covered grid sewn together with 'Do Not Cross' tape. Here Love is expressed through corrective surgery, and families meet across boardroom tables.

Manhattan Loverboy

Manhattan Loverboy
Author: Arthur Nersesian
Publisher: Akashic Books
Total Pages: 154
Release: 2000-07-01
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1617752215

A novel of a young man’s adventures in New York City by an author who is “part Lewis Carroll, part Franz Kafka” (Library Journal). This tale introduces us to Joey, a New York City graduate student. Brought up by emotionally—and physically—distant adoptive parents, he has no idea what his heritage really is, though he did decide to try being Jewish after being dragged into a mitzvah tank by a Hasid. Now he has worked his way through most of a graduate history program at Columbia University—but when his academic fellowship from a mysterious benefactor is suddenly rescinded, he will be led into a furious and bizarre quest—in a novel from an acclaimed author praised for his ability to blend dark, fantastic satire with genuine human feeling. “Paranoid fantasy and fantastic comedy in the service of social realism . . . At its best, [Manhattan Loverboy] assays the grittiest, funkiest urban-magic-realism yet, creating a satirical fiction avidly in search of the truth it’s all too aware is even stranger than itself.” —Downtown “Nersesian renders Gotham’s unique cocktail of wealth, poverty, crime, glamour, and brutality spectacularly . . . But in the end, it is Joey’s search for his own identity that makes this book a winner.” —Rain Taxi Review of Books on East Village Tetralogy

The Fuck Up

The Fuck Up
Author: Arthur Nersesian
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 304
Release: 1999-05
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0671027638

Doesn't the title say it all? After a series of set-backs, an unnamed slacker pretends to be gay to get a job which launches him on a darkly hilarious odyssey through New York City grit.

Dogrun

Dogrun
Author: Arthur Nersesian
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 276
Release: 2010-06-15
Genre: Young Adult Fiction
ISBN: 1451602871

mary bellanova came home to her east village apartment, cooked dinner, and fought with her boyfriend, primo. but soon mary realized that primo's silence in front of the tv set was more than just one of his bad moods: primo was actually dead. other guys had abandoned mary before,but primo's exit was by far the most unique. and suddenly mary's life -- defined so far by a string of temp jobs and unfinished short stories -- takes off on a tantalizing adventure as she follows a trail of primo's ex-lovers. arthur nersesian, who created a howling new york odyssey in his smash hit the fuck-up, captures the spirit of the city itself -- jolting and full of surprise -- in this powerful new novel edged with black humor and poignancy.

Mesopotamia

Mesopotamia
Author: Arthur Nersesian
Publisher: Akashic Books
Total Pages: 241
Release: 2010-07-01
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1936070847

“Thoroughly entertaining, with an offbeat sense of humor . . . There’s a solid mystery here, underneath the goofiness” (Booklist). Things have not been going well for journalist Sandy Bloomgarten. Her job went down the drain and her marriage quickly followed. After a lengthy bender, she awakens one morning to the stark realization that she is flat broke. Nonetheless, she’s still a crack reporter, and when a tabloid offers her a freelance assignment in Memphis—just a stone’s throw from her childhood home in Mesopotamia, Tennessee—she takes it. Though sent there for one story, she winds up tracking down another: someone is killing Elvis impersonators who perform at the annual Sing-the-King festival. The few available clues lead her to several unlikely characters: a cheating local minister constantly on the make, a strange band of misfits who only cover Elvis tunes, and a small-town private eye who blew himself up along with his crystal meth lab. As Sandy’s investigation closes, she realizes that she is sitting on what could be the story of the century. The only problem is she can never reveal what she has found . . . “The immortal shadow of Elvis Presley gyrates wildly through this satiric exploration of America’s fascination with tabloid journalism.” —Publishers Weekly

Suicide Casanova

Suicide Casanova
Author: Arthur Nersesian
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2005
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9781888451665

What do Woody Allen, O.J. Simpson, and Gary Condit have in common with Leslie Cauldwell, protagonist of Nersesian's latest offering? They are Suicide Casanovas. What compels powerful men in the prime of their professional lives to risk so much? Following the commercial success of his first four novels, Suicide Casanova presents a psychosexual thriller, a dramatic departure from his youthful black comedies: Humbert Humbert without the paedophile penchant, Hannibal Lechter without the appetite.

The Swing Voter of Staten Island

The Swing Voter of Staten Island
Author: Arthur Nersesian
Publisher: Akashic Books
Total Pages: 289
Release: 2007-10-01
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1936070529

“Nersesian’s extravagantly imagined dystopia relies—as did those in Philip Roth’s Plot Against America and Michael Chabon’s Yiddish Policemen’s Union—on an alternate, counterfactual history.”—The New York Times Book Review “Combining sci-fi space/time-warping, Unabomber-style political ranting and an overall air of goose-bump paranoia, this is one turbo-charged trip. . . . A sharp, strange read: Imagine William Burroughs and Philip K. Dick sharing a needle.”—Kirkus Reviews “Brilliant.”—Time Out New York Arthur Nersesian’s six previous novels (including The Fuck-Up, MTV/Pocket Books, which has sold over 100,000 copies) have focused on the tragicomedy of fin de siècle New York City. Here, in his boldest novel to date, Nersesian has broken through into a new landscape that at once fuses the real with the surreal, the psychological with the psychedelic. He lives in New York City.

Chinese Takeout

Chinese Takeout
Author: Arthur Nersesian
Publisher: Harper Collins
Total Pages: 306
Release: 2003-07-29
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9780060548827

From the author of the cult classic The Fuck-Up comes a vicious new tale of art, drugs, love, and death on the Lower East Side. Orloff Trenchant is a painter who sells books on West 4th Street in Manhattan and is obsessed with mastering his craft. Desperate for cash, Or agrees to take a commission no one else will touch: he has three weeks to carve a headstone for a recently deceased restaurateur -- a Chinese takeout box. As Or attempts to make his deadline, he navigates among a toxic mix of fellow artists, struggling gallery owners, bloodsucking art dealers, his politically active friends, and a haunting addict poet whose life is more out of control than Or's own. Nersesian's prose is sparkling and hypnotic in this brutal and comic story that will make you wonder if life and art are two different things.

The Sacrificial Circumcision of the Bronx

The Sacrificial Circumcision of the Bronx
Author: Arthur Nersesian
Publisher: Akashic Books
Total Pages: 297
Release: 2008-10-01
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1936070510

“Nersesian is this generation’s Mark Twain and the East River is his Mississippi.”—Jennifer Belle, author of High Maintenance “Nersesian is a first-rate observer of his native New York.”—Publishers Weekly "The unquestioned authority of Moses is difficult to fully grasp today -- this unimaginable, outsized character whose outrageous deeds seem the stuff of novels. And that is how Nersesian is tackling him, by blending fact with fiction. Historical events and persons are interwoven with a fascinating apocalyptic story and literary license, at last revealing the tumultuous life and legacy of Robert Moses. Faced with such a daunting subject matter and multi-volume work, Nersesian’s narrative is masterful."—Brooklyn Eagle The Sacrificial Circumcision of the Bronx is the highly anticipated follow-up to The Swing Voter of Staten Island—the first two installments in Arthur Nersesian’s series of novels offering an alternate history of New York: The Five Books of Moses. Robert Moses was responsible for creating contemporary New York’s infrastructure, but he did so at the cost of destroying neighborhoods. In this novel, Robert has looted his brother Paul’s share of the Moses family fortune, repeatedly blocked his attempts at gaining public office, thwarted his career in the private sector, and set in motion events that decimate Paul’s home life. Paul Moses’ deep-seated rage metamorphoses into an act of terrorism committed against his brother and against a city that he once cherished. Although it can be read as a stand-alone novel about Robert and Paul Moses, The Sacrificial Circumcision of the Bronx is also a memory play that follows Uli Sarkisian—the hero of The Swing Voter of Staten Island—en route to solving a massive historical crime, while desperately struggling to escape from becoming another one of its victims. Arthur Nersesian is the author of eight novels, including the smash hit The Fuck-Up (more than 100,000 copies sold), dogrun, Suicide Casanova (Akashic Books), and, most recently, The Swing Voter of Staten Island, the first volume in The Five Books of Moses series. He lives in New York City.