Lost Joy

(Paperback)

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Description

Lost Joy collects the writing that first brought Camden Joy wide attention in the mid-90s, when he wheatpasted his manifestoes around New York, excoriating the music industry and celebrating unsung geniuses of rock and roll. Joys voiceheartfelt, mocking, lyrical, razor-sharpearned comparisons to the likes of Allen Ginsberg, Patti Smith, and Nick Hornby. Rooted in DIY zine culture, his rants prefigure the unfettered public expression of personal views that would explode with the rise of the Internet, and enact in words what Banksy would later achieve in art. Joys groundbreaking early fiction, in which his characters often invoke musicians and songs, is also included here. These haunting stories explore the many ways in which we use music to communicate our feelings and make sense of our memories.

Reviews

I can't think of another writer who writes so resonantly about the emotional and intellectual consequences of being a discriminating devotee of popular music.-- from the foreword by Dennis Cooper

"One of the country's most original music writers.-- Ira Glass

"I know of no one who writes with more passion and more soul."-- Dave Eggers

Author Bio

Camden Joy is the author of two novels, "The Last Rock Star Book, or: Liz Phair, a Rant" and "Boy Island"; and three novellas, "Hubcap Diamondstar Halo, Palm Tree 13," and "Pan" (republished in one volume as "3 Novellas"); as well as numerous manifestoes, tracts, and other rants, many of which are included in the collection "Lost Joy." Jonathan Lethem is the "New York Times" best-selling author of nine novels, most recently "Dissident Gardens."