High Life

Review\n"High Life shows an author of awesome ability .. . one of the best [books] to come out in 2002." --Barcelona Review\n"[Stokoe's] style is so fluidly readable that it's difficult to put thebook down." --Splendid Magazine\n"Stokoe proves himself a worthy heir to the great tradition of California noir. Brutaland unflinching in its depiction of violence and sex, his book is like anunholy hybrid of Raymond Chandler's best work and Bret Easton Ellis's AmericanPsycho."
--Henry Flesh, Lambda Literary Award-winning author of Massage\n"An elaborately drawn, surgically accurate Hollywood dystopia . . ."--Ellen Miller, author of the international bestseller Like Being Killed\n"All of the classic ingredients of Californian noir are here, but Stokoetakes things further than most . . . The plot is skilfully worked, the elementsof crime writing are not jettisoned in the mounting horrors that he describes.There's also a certain grim humour on display, at times it is impossible not tolaugh, even when Stokoe is making us wallow in filth. One can't help but feelthat he's enjoying himself immensely . . . This is a compelling and grippingnovel." --Black Star Reviews (UK)\n"If you've got a stomach for a bit of the old ultra-violence, and allmanner of unnatural sexual custom, you will be as fascinated by High Life'sdepiction of Angeleno lowlife and highlife as I was." --ink19\n"Matthew Stokoe's brutal novel High Life explores the lengths oneman will go to for a shot at stardom, and to say those lengths are extremewould be an understatement. From Raymond Chandler to Nathanael West to JamesEllroy, the "dark underbelly of L.A."novel has always been an exercise in one-upmanship, to see who can create thestarkest contrast between the surface of Hollywoodglitz and the sheer depravity that lies beneath it. Stokoe's protagonist isJack, a fully confirmed acolyte of the Hollywood Dream whose holy writ are theprint and video tabloids . . . [T]he novel never strays far from its centralpurpose, to force the reader to consider the price he or she might pay for theultimate prize. As we watch the various threads of Jack's life come together ina truly devastating series of events that raise the stakes ever higher, thequestion of how much hell any of us would endure for the promise of heaven isas poignant here as it is in anything by Dante." --PopMatters\nHollywood. The City of Dreams at the end of the nineties. Jack has one ambition – to get famous. He doesn’t care how. He just wants to be like the people he sees in tabloid magazines and on TV: Brad Pitt, Johnny Depp, Tom and Nicole, Arnie, Bruce, Sly.... But the desire for fame has a dark side and he finds himself in a world of drugs and crime, whores, snuff shows, incest, deceit and despair. When his wife is found dead – murdered and disemboweled – and the search for her killer leads him to the femme fatale of all femmes fatales, he sees a chance to make his dreams of money and fame come true. But the City of Dreams can also be the City of Nightmares and it’s going to be a long, dark ride before Jack wakes up.\nFrom the Back Cover\n"Stokoe'sin-your-face prose and raw, unnerving scenes give way to a skillfully plottedtale that will keep readers glued to the page..."
Publisher's Weekly\n"One of the mostunstinting, imaginative, brutal, and original contemporary novels ever writtenabout the punishments that come with the prioritization of fame..."
Dennis Cooper\n"High Life isperhaps the greatest neglected masterpiece of true noir. I've never readanything like it before or since." "Chandler on heroin, Hammet on crack, JamesM. Cain with a blowtorch..."
Ken Bruen\n"Stokoeproves himself a worthy heir to the great tradition of California noir. Brutaland unflinching in its depiction of violence and sex, his book is like anunholy hybrid of Raymond Chandler's best work and Bret Easton Ellis's American Psycho."
Henry Flesh\nHollywood. The City of Dreams at the end of the nineties.Jack has one ambiti