The first prints of the paperback edition of Rachel Kushner‘s 1970s New York-centric, The Flamethrowers, will be rolling off the presses at the moment in preparation for the novel’s release early next year. Building on the hardback release in April 2013 and the success of her debut novel, Telex from Cuba, which made it through to the finals of the 2008 US National Book Award, it’s a vibrant portrait of the art-scene in the Big Apple.
The paperback release date for the novel is the 2nd January 2014, and while you’re bound to be laden down with Christmas gift books to plough through, Rachel Kushner’s The Flamethrowers is one to add to your reading list if you’re a bit of an arty at heart. At 400 pages it’s a sizeable novel to fit in, but it’s been given a lot of praise from critics with it’s small-town girl in New York concept set against the heady heights of the New York art district during one of its flamboyant periods.
The story follows a young artist known only as Reno, after her birthplace in the heat of Nevada, as she travels pretty much the length of the United States to take up residence in New York’s art quarter in SoHo’s East Village. Her dream is to bring her love of fast motorbikes to the city’s art scene, which has taken up residence in the previously industrial area of the city, a time honoured tradition for artists as they move to find cheap and spacious places to live and work.
Upon arrival, Reno gets taken in by a group of aspiring artists who provide an introduction to what the city’s sub-culture has to offer. Along the way she gets into a relationship with a rich heir, embroiled in radical Italian politics and ultimately into the undercurrents of terrorism, which is all a part of the multi-themed title and narrative of the book.
Exploring the counter-culture of youth, creativity and destruction the book is at once beautiful and vibrant, while equally exploring the darker elements of rebellion, cause and effect. Reno is the girl that could be anything and it would appear that in The Flamethrowers she’s very nearly everything.
The reviews of the hardback release are genuinely impressive, so we’re picking it out as one of next year’s first must-read paperback released. Critical praise for the novel is an adjective laced mix that ranges from dazzling to thrilling, frightening and intelligent. It may be a random splice of motorbikes, art and radicalised politics, but there’s definitely a search for a cause at forefront of it all.
