Candy

Davies, Luke. Candy, New York: Ballantine Books, 1998

Set in Sydney Australia Candy tells a tale of a young couple’s addiction to heroin and each other and like all addictions it has euphoria and self destruction.

Once the narrator see’s Candy he is enthralled by her beauty and presence and they fall in love quickly.

Unfortunately their relationship turns sour when it becomes a threesome with heroin and they are forced to do abhorrent things to obtain money to sustain their habit.

Like many novels about drug culture Candy is filled with regret, pain and an abundance of dark humor but what sets Candy apart is its Australian setting where drug culture hasn’t really be explored so realistically.

Candy was adapted into a film starring Heath Ledger candy which was a moderate critical success but before watching the film read the book a rare Australian transgressive novel.

Fight Club

Palahniuk, Chuck. Fight Club, New York: W. W. Norton & Company ,1996.

How to maintain your identity and your masculinity in a world of consumerism? That is one of the many questions provoked in Fight club as it follows an anonymous narrator struggling with insomnia until he meets the charismatic Tyler Durden who together create an underground boxing club which quickly obtains many members who all try to regain their masculinity through fighting and anarchic acts of mischief.

Fight Club which was adapted into a highly successful film starring Brad Pitt feels like a piece of apocalyptic fiction and is darkly humorous in its tone.

Intended mature audiences those who can handled its intensity will find it quite enjoyable and it is a must have for generation X individuals.

Trainspotting

Welsh, Irvine. Trainspotting, New York: W. W. Norton, 1996.

Trainspotting is a fast paced novel about working class culture and heroin addiction in Edinburgh Scotland as it follows the lives of several young people in their punk lifestyles.

Told from multiple perspectives the novel could be considered book of short stories about each of the characters as they steal, go to concerts, cause mayhem, use heroin, drink pints, have abstract conversations, have relationships and run scams.

It heavily uses Scottish dialect in its writing adding more reality to the speech of these characters but also causing the reader to perhaps phonetically sound out some of the words.

It instantly got cult status for its depiction of a dark side of Scotland not often explored and for its black humor.

Trainspotting has adult content and should be read by people over 18 who are interested fast paced humorous read that goes against social norms.

American Psycho

Ellis, Bret Easton. American Psycho, New York: Vintage Books, 1991

Very controversial upon getting published Bret Easton Ellis’s disturbing satire American Psycho explores the life of Patrick Bateman a stereotypical eighties yuppie who has it all beautiful fiancée, high paying job and the best fashion but also is a serial murder.

The novel set in New York follows Bateman through his own perspective as he goes to work, goes to parties, argues with friends over the best fashion and appliances and while he tortures and kills people mostly women.

While very gruesome, violent and graphic American Psycho is often very darkly hilarious as it satirizes vanity, consumerism and machismo in eighties Wall street culture.

Disturbing and not for the suitable for the weak stomached but anyone who can handle it will find it most enjoyable.

Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture

Coupland, Douglas. Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture, New York: St. Martin's Press,1991

Told from multiple perspectives Generation X: tales for an accelerated culture follows three friends Dag, Claire and Andy as they face dilemmas pertaining to being part of the post baby boomer generation.

Satircal in nature Coupland successfully lampoons absurdities of the 1990s such as the Mcjob revolution.

A novel pumped with anarchy with characters that refuse to grow and give to monotony.

Hilarious and well structured Generation X: tales for an accelerated culture is a good read.

Geek Love

Dunn, Katherine. Geek Love, New York: A. A. Knopf, c1989

Geek love tells the story of the Al and Lillian Binewski and their children who Al and Lillian deliberately tried to give them birth defects to make them bigger attractions to the carnival.

Told in two different time periods one that follows the Binewski family travelling around the country as performers in the carnival and the infighting between the children especially around the spotlight and the second is set much further in the future as it follows Oly Binewski one of the children and a humpback who spies on her daughter who doesn’t know Oly is her mother.

Containing a lot of black humor Geek Love satirizes spectacles, religion, celebrity and vanity.

This novel should be considered an underground classic.

Perfume: the Story of a Murderer

Suskind, Patrick. Perfume: the story of a murderer, New York: A.A. Knopf, 1986

Set in France Perfume Jean-Baptiste Grenouille an orphan who processes an incredibly sense of smell which is the source of his horrible obsession.

As Jean-Baptiste grows up and becomes an apprentice perfume maker which is ironic because he himself has no scent.

His search for perfect scent though drives him to terrible acts as he believes young virgins possess the scent he is after.

A tale full of intrigue and horror, not for those who scare easy or detest violence.

Perfume has become a cult classic and has even broken into mainstream conciseness.