Shame [Wolfe Margolies]

[Shame] [Nasty] [You Have Been Warned]

Shame

Wolf Margolies

Infinity Land Press, UK. 2024. Like new. Includes postcard inserts.

From the publisher:

"Following in the tradition of prison writers like Jean Genet, Jack Henry Abbott and de Sade, Wolfe Margolies’s SHAME is one of the decade's most urgent and disturbing debut novels. SHAME explores themes of rape, trauma, addiction, sadomasochism, heartbreak, tragedy and death through the connected stories of multiple young and old New Yorkers as they struggle to conquer their internalized feelings of shame. SHAME is Wolfe Margolies' first novel, but his writing and music have appeared in many places, including Vice, The Daily Beast and Rolling Stone (for a collaborative EP with Lydia Lunch, 2017). He is currently serving a 14-year sentence in a federal prison where he wrote this book."

Nasty stuff from a nasty young man. The narrative is loose; picture New Yorkers of all types and ages, threaded together only by their eclectic depravity. A strange sci-fi atmosphere begins to set in as the book works towards a septic grand guignol. Recommended - this is light years ahead of a lot of "transgressive lit" from a similar milieu.