The Flamethrowers
NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST * NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS BY THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW * New York magazine's #1 Book of the Year * Best Book of 2013 by: The Wall Street Journal; Vogue; O, The Oprah Magazine; Los Angeles Times; The San Francisco Chronicle; The New Yorker; Time; Flavorwire; Salon; Slate; The Daily Beast "Superb...Scintillatingly alive...A pure explosion of now."--The New Yorker Reno, so-called because of the place of her birth, comes to New York intent on turning her fascination with motorcycles and speed into art. Her arrival coincides with an explosion of activity--artists colonize a deserted and industrial SoHo, stage actions in the East Village, blur the line between life and art. Reno is submitted to a sentimental education of sorts--by dreamers, poseurs, and raconteurs in New York and by radicals in Italy, where she goes with her lover to meet his estranged and formidable family. Ardent, vulnerable, and bold, Reno is a fiercely memorable observer, superbly realized by Rachel Kushner.
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Community Reviews
An ambitious novel that attempted to connect multiple characters, points of view and themes across decades and continents.
Primarily told from the POV of "Reno", a young would-be artist recently arrived in New York City in the 1970s, and, flashing back, of Valera, the father of Reno's boyfriend Sandro and the patriarch of an Italian industrial conglomerate.
Reno is a bit of a cypher (purposefully, I think - so that the chauvinist men in her l...read more
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