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Wrong: Stories
By daring to use death to look at life, Cooper gives us a new perspective on our deepest fears and needs. This collection of stories provides an overview of his evolution and, as William T. Vollmann wrote in The New York Times Book Review, a portrait of “our soulless and decaying society.”
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First published January 14, 1993
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About the author
Dennis Cooper
109 books1,784 followersDennis Cooper was born on January 10, 1953. He grew up in the Southern California cities of Covina and Arcadia.
He wrote stories and poems from early age but got serious about writing at 15 after reading Arthur Rimbaud and The Marquis de Sade. He attended LA county public schools until the 8th grade when he transferred to a private school, Flintridge Preparatory School for Boys in La Canada, California, from which he was expelled in the 11th grade.
While at Flintridge, he met his friend George Miles, who would become his muse and the subject of much of his future writing. He attended Pasadena City College for two years, attending poetry writing workshops taught by the poets Ronald Koertge and Jerene Hewitt. He then attended one year of university at Pitzer College in Claremont, California, where he studied with the poet Bert Meyers.
In 1976, he founded Little Caesar Magazine and Press, which he ran until 1982. From 1980 to 1983 he was Director of Programming for the Beyond Baroque Literary/Art Center in Venice, California. From 1983 to 1985, he lived in New York City.
In 1985, he moved to Amsterdam for two and a half years, where he began his ten year long project, The George Miles Cycle, an interconnected sequence of five novels that includes Closer, Frisk, Try, Guide, and Period.
His post-George Miles Cycle novels include My Loose Thread, The Sluts and God, Jr.
Other works include the short-story collections Wrong and Ugly Man, poetry collections The Dream Police and The Weaklings, as well as the recent Smothered in Hugs: Essays, Interviews, Feedback, and Obituaries.
Dennis Cooper currently spends his time between Los Angeles and Paris.
He wrote stories and poems from early age but got serious about writing at 15 after reading Arthur Rimbaud and The Marquis de Sade. He attended LA county public schools until the 8th grade when he transferred to a private school, Flintridge Preparatory School for Boys in La Canada, California, from which he was expelled in the 11th grade.
While at Flintridge, he met his friend George Miles, who would become his muse and the subject of much of his future writing. He attended Pasadena City College for two years, attending poetry writing workshops taught by the poets Ronald Koertge and Jerene Hewitt. He then attended one year of university at Pitzer College in Claremont, California, where he studied with the poet Bert Meyers.
In 1976, he founded Little Caesar Magazine and Press, which he ran until 1982. From 1980 to 1983 he was Director of Programming for the Beyond Baroque Literary/Art Center in Venice, California. From 1983 to 1985, he lived in New York City.
In 1985, he moved to Amsterdam for two and a half years, where he began his ten year long project, The George Miles Cycle, an interconnected sequence of five novels that includes Closer, Frisk, Try, Guide, and Period.
His post-George Miles Cycle novels include My Loose Thread, The Sluts and God, Jr.
Other works include the short-story collections Wrong and Ugly Man, poetry collections The Dream Police and The Weaklings, as well as the recent Smothered in Hugs: Essays, Interviews, Feedback, and Obituaries.
Dennis Cooper currently spends his time between Los Angeles and Paris.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 56 reviews
April 1, 2025
I have just read through all 31 reviews for this book on Goodreads (as of June 2023 and honestly that there are only 31 is shocking when a piece of shit like Antoine Wilson's Mouth to Mouth has collected over sixteen hundred!) and although I liked some I was depressed by the mediocrity of the mass. The number of people who found this collection 'shocking' was most depressing. I couldn't help wondering if we had read the same book or if they had actually read it?
As I review Cooper's novels I expect to have to say this again and again, that there is more real violence in most crime or true crime books (never mind tv and film) and the actual amount of descriptive sex (except for one story) is minimal compared to your average chick-lit (or lite) novel which you will find on library shelves. Of course chick-lit is straight sex and Cooper's sex is queer sex, most definitely not the gay sex of 'gays' who want to convince everyone that they are just another form of heterosexual. If you get the vapours every time you come across something unpleasant without warning then it is not just Cooper's books you should avoid, but life itself.
I first read this collection back in 1995 or 96 when Dennis Cooper was in London and promoting this collection of stories as well as his novels 'Frisk' and 'Closer' - I actually purchased signed copies of all three (now long lost much to my regret) - and I can remember how much this collection dazzled me. It was and still is so different, so completely new and powerful in ways I could not and still cannot explain. What I knew then and rereading has only confirmed is that Dennis Cooper is one of the most important writers to emerge in the post war USA. He has thousands of imitators but you only have to read one of his works in conjunction with those that are said to be his equals and you will see how he is streets ahead.
There is violence in the eponymous story 'Wrong' there is a murder that is truly shocking because unexpected and the next story 'Dinner' as well as 'Horror Hospital' are portraits of cruelty so compelling because they are so real. What makes it impossible, for me, to describe or discuss these stories is because Cooper has already undermined any possibility of attributing emotion or meaning because he has stripped all the conventional meanings away from his words. Yet I am convinced that Cooper in these stories has more empathy and sympathy with his doomed boys than any of his critics are willing to understand. I found them all strangely moving.
Rereading the collection now I am embarrassed that I had never previously recognised amongst the names of high school boys he throw out at the start of the (exceptionally fine) story 'Herd' that of Wojnarowicz (whether the other two surnames mentioned Smith and Peters also have significance I do not know). It is also amusing to discover that the porn films and porn stars mentioned in 'Square One' were real and that it is now certainly easier to acquire the films mentioned then it would have been in the USA or UK back in 1995; not because of censorship but because in those pre-internet days porn was something consumed and disposed of. While trying to obtain an older porn film was not impossible, it was certainly eccentric, like buying a years old copy of a newspaper.
These stories never cease to amaze and hold me in their spell. I know I will read them again.
As I review Cooper's novels I expect to have to say this again and again, that there is more real violence in most crime or true crime books (never mind tv and film) and the actual amount of descriptive sex (except for one story) is minimal compared to your average chick-lit (or lite) novel which you will find on library shelves. Of course chick-lit is straight sex and Cooper's sex is queer sex, most definitely not the gay sex of 'gays' who want to convince everyone that they are just another form of heterosexual. If you get the vapours every time you come across something unpleasant without warning then it is not just Cooper's books you should avoid, but life itself.
I first read this collection back in 1995 or 96 when Dennis Cooper was in London and promoting this collection of stories as well as his novels 'Frisk' and 'Closer' - I actually purchased signed copies of all three (now long lost much to my regret) - and I can remember how much this collection dazzled me. It was and still is so different, so completely new and powerful in ways I could not and still cannot explain. What I knew then and rereading has only confirmed is that Dennis Cooper is one of the most important writers to emerge in the post war USA. He has thousands of imitators but you only have to read one of his works in conjunction with those that are said to be his equals and you will see how he is streets ahead.
There is violence in the eponymous story 'Wrong' there is a murder that is truly shocking because unexpected and the next story 'Dinner' as well as 'Horror Hospital' are portraits of cruelty so compelling because they are so real. What makes it impossible, for me, to describe or discuss these stories is because Cooper has already undermined any possibility of attributing emotion or meaning because he has stripped all the conventional meanings away from his words. Yet I am convinced that Cooper in these stories has more empathy and sympathy with his doomed boys than any of his critics are willing to understand. I found them all strangely moving.
Rereading the collection now I am embarrassed that I had never previously recognised amongst the names of high school boys he throw out at the start of the (exceptionally fine) story 'Herd' that of Wojnarowicz (whether the other two surnames mentioned Smith and Peters also have significance I do not know). It is also amusing to discover that the porn films and porn stars mentioned in 'Square One' were real and that it is now certainly easier to acquire the films mentioned then it would have been in the USA or UK back in 1995; not because of censorship but because in those pre-internet days porn was something consumed and disposed of. While trying to obtain an older porn film was not impossible, it was certainly eccentric, like buying a years old copy of a newspaper.
These stories never cease to amaze and hold me in their spell. I know I will read them again.
May 7, 2009
Y'know what was weird about this? Not that ol Dennis broke the fourth wall, exactly, but that like, he winked at me. In most of his other stuff that I've read, he's all straightfaced like 'then the dazed teenage drug addict spread his friends ass as far open as he could and stuffed his arm into it. To the elbow. Totally hot for the smell of blood and shit.' But in this one, he talks about "God" in quotes and alludes to having feelings! Weird. I know that I am a little bit obsessed with him so I can't really say but it makes me feel like he's letting me (I MEAN THE READER) closer (CLOSER) to him than usual. Which is nice.
Maybe it's just that the George Miles books are a very specific thing where he, as the author, totally hides out and pretends not to be there? 'Cause these stories span thirty years or something so maybe he's been less impresonal when he's not writing the books that I liked so much. I mean, Ill said Ugly Man was funny, so I think probably.
Maybe it's just that the George Miles books are a very specific thing where he, as the author, totally hides out and pretends not to be there? 'Cause these stories span thirty years or something so maybe he's been less impresonal when he's not writing the books that I liked so much. I mean, Ill said Ugly Man was funny, so I think probably.
December 14, 2015
As is typical for me, I'm more pulled in by longer-form storytelling, so the winding, desperate opener here, "The Herd", was the highlight. Even moreso than Cooper's first novel, Safe, a generous inclusion here that still felt a bit like three separate stories tied together in order to trace a common contour. Other highlights: timeless punk band story Horror Hospital, and the sequencing slight-of-hand that follows up the blunt detailing of a sex act in "Dinner" with a sort of narrative art criticism article on the aesthetics of pornography. Which really explains a lot of how Cooper works -- not the article itself, but this self-reflexive sequencing of idea that constantly reframes and studies its own tendencies. Actually, it's all pretty solid Cooper, just not quite as great as the entire Cycle that started just after Safe with Closer.
April 4, 2025
Perverted nonsense. Transgression without substance.
December 7, 2015
This was a very frustrating book. I had mixed (though mostly positive) feelings about Dennis Cooper's other book, The Sluts. It seems to me a very strange metafictional text, and I would certainly suggest that people read it. But Dennis Cooper's earlier short fiction, collected here in Wrong, is so much of the same thing, I became very bored.
Listen, I understand that Cooper's thing is perverse sexuality and violence. But I find it hard not to roll my eyes by the seventh description of a gaping, just-fisted asshole. I just find Cooper so desperate to be cool. And I do not care about some writer's coolness.
The disappointing thing is that this book has some very clever passages, some genuinely thoughtful moments, and some very interesting questions. But all of it is undone by Cooper's self-satisfaction. The fact that every story involves some twinks being violently used by other men is so — honestly — dumb. Does he really believe that this is shocking?
I don't think I came away from this with much — not a thought, or an emotion, or even an image. Wrong is just so dull (and not in a meaningful way). Oh, well. On to the next one.
2 Assholes Like an Edvard Munch Painting out of 5
Listen, I understand that Cooper's thing is perverse sexuality and violence. But I find it hard not to roll my eyes by the seventh description of a gaping, just-fisted asshole. I just find Cooper so desperate to be cool. And I do not care about some writer's coolness.
The disappointing thing is that this book has some very clever passages, some genuinely thoughtful moments, and some very interesting questions. But all of it is undone by Cooper's self-satisfaction. The fact that every story involves some twinks being violently used by other men is so — honestly — dumb. Does he really believe that this is shocking?
I don't think I came away from this with much — not a thought, or an emotion, or even an image. Wrong is just so dull (and not in a meaningful way). Oh, well. On to the next one.
2 Assholes Like an Edvard Munch Painting out of 5
Read
October 9, 2023made me crazy as usual. favourites were Introducing Horror Hospital, Wrong, Square One, and 'My Mark' in Safe
— "He'll reach as far as he can through the bars and never get near it. I mean the truth about anyone."
— "He'll reach as far as he can through the bars and never get near it. I mean the truth about anyone."
December 12, 2025
angular, sometimes funny short stories about gay sex, serial murder, the memory of a past lover, punk bands, etc etc
December 11, 2024
"Dear Mother. I'm dead. That was me in the abandoned house. I fooled them. You can sleep now. I don't think I miss you, but I thank you for all that you've..."
Each and every time I read a Dennis Cooper novel, I'm reminded that there is something so disgustingly enrapturing and beguiling about the way that he writes. It goes without saying that, Cooper is an author who is going to divide audiences, but, regardless of how you feel about the works of Dennis Cooper, or regardless of how you feel about the author himself, there's one singular thing that cannot be disputed - Dennis Cooper is the master of writing about being alive, when being alive is completely fucking horrifying. Wrong is unpleasant to read, it's soul crushing, it's utterly obliterating and almost makes you feel violated. Wrong will hollow you out, make you feel as if you're nothing. Wrong will ruin your life in the best possible way.
Wrong is a book of pure cruelty, it's shocking, disturbing, sickening, it's ungodly and foul, it's absolutely not something for the faint of heart but, despite all of this, there's a really rather wonderful tenderness to how these stories are written. Wrong contains a level of sympathy and care so rarely found in any other works of literature. Without a doubt this is not a nice novel, it's not intended to be a pleasant experience, it's a novel that gives life to a deep, void like emptiness within our hearts. It's a work so soaked in nihilistic dread that it feels like being doused in bleach. Wrong is a festering wound that's oozing rot and decay, and it's so damn affecting, and so wonderfully moving. Like all great works of literature should, Wrong challenges the boundaries of what is safe and comfortable.
There's a deceptive level of elegance to this novel, and the way that it's written is so deeply strange. Wrong is devoid of flowery prose and gorgeous language, there's no flashy tricks here, it's sharp and short and feels like some next level of unhinged, emotionless storytelling, yet, there's a nauseating level of intensity and beauty to it, much like a preacher delivering their final sermon before the end of times. Wrong is an utterly desolate, depressing and honestly, vague collection of stories that are completely submerged in melancholia - it's a book that proves just why Cooper is one of the most important writers of transgressive fiction. This is truly a powerhouse of a book, there's really nothing like this out there. Unflinching and vile, this is a novel that's earned its rightful place next to the greats.
"When I'm with him I feel perfectly calm and when I'm not I want to jump off a building so he'll never stop thinking of me."
Each and every time I read a Dennis Cooper novel, I'm reminded that there is something so disgustingly enrapturing and beguiling about the way that he writes. It goes without saying that, Cooper is an author who is going to divide audiences, but, regardless of how you feel about the works of Dennis Cooper, or regardless of how you feel about the author himself, there's one singular thing that cannot be disputed - Dennis Cooper is the master of writing about being alive, when being alive is completely fucking horrifying. Wrong is unpleasant to read, it's soul crushing, it's utterly obliterating and almost makes you feel violated. Wrong will hollow you out, make you feel as if you're nothing. Wrong will ruin your life in the best possible way.
Wrong is a book of pure cruelty, it's shocking, disturbing, sickening, it's ungodly and foul, it's absolutely not something for the faint of heart but, despite all of this, there's a really rather wonderful tenderness to how these stories are written. Wrong contains a level of sympathy and care so rarely found in any other works of literature. Without a doubt this is not a nice novel, it's not intended to be a pleasant experience, it's a novel that gives life to a deep, void like emptiness within our hearts. It's a work so soaked in nihilistic dread that it feels like being doused in bleach. Wrong is a festering wound that's oozing rot and decay, and it's so damn affecting, and so wonderfully moving. Like all great works of literature should, Wrong challenges the boundaries of what is safe and comfortable.
"When Mike saw a pretty face, he liked to mess it up, or give it drugs until it wore out by itself. Take Keith, who used to play pool at the Ninth Circle. His cooked smile really lights up the place. That's what Mike heard, but it bored him, too obvious. Keith was a kiss-up. Mike fucked him hard, then they snorted some dope. Keith was face first in the toilet bowl when Mike walked in. Keith had said "knock me around." But first Mike wanted him "dead." Not in the classic sense. "Passed out"
There's a deceptive level of elegance to this novel, and the way that it's written is so deeply strange. Wrong is devoid of flowery prose and gorgeous language, there's no flashy tricks here, it's sharp and short and feels like some next level of unhinged, emotionless storytelling, yet, there's a nauseating level of intensity and beauty to it, much like a preacher delivering their final sermon before the end of times. Wrong is an utterly desolate, depressing and honestly, vague collection of stories that are completely submerged in melancholia - it's a book that proves just why Cooper is one of the most important writers of transgressive fiction. This is truly a powerhouse of a book, there's really nothing like this out there. Unflinching and vile, this is a novel that's earned its rightful place next to the greats.
"When I'm with him I feel perfectly calm and when I'm not I want to jump off a building so he'll never stop thinking of me."
November 3, 2022
Opened wide; welcomed this book’s insertion with a pained but exhilarated gasp. It was good!
December 23, 2023
this was fantastic, as i have come to expect cooper’s works to be.
the prose is equal parts beautiful and simplistic, extensive and barebones.
this is definitely one that needs to be read several times to be understood fully, and i absolutely cannot wait for what will be revealed to me on my second read. already i have so many things that stuck with me, things that i’m thinking about and things that i’m questioning, so i cannot wait to see what more reveals itself to me. what connections will i find, which will i dismiss?
this work has again made me hungry for more, and i’ll be sure to return to finally read more of cooper’s work, my last ones having been the george miles cycle in october (?) this year.
the prose is equal parts beautiful and simplistic, extensive and barebones.
this is definitely one that needs to be read several times to be understood fully, and i absolutely cannot wait for what will be revealed to me on my second read. already i have so many things that stuck with me, things that i’m thinking about and things that i’m questioning, so i cannot wait to see what more reveals itself to me. what connections will i find, which will i dismiss?
this work has again made me hungry for more, and i’ll be sure to return to finally read more of cooper’s work, my last ones having been the george miles cycle in october (?) this year.
December 15, 2025
On first impressions, this felt like a piece of transgressive literature aimed at shocking and unnerving the reader with uncomfortably graphic scenes of sex, violence and murder within the male homosexual community of 1980s Los Angeles. After 40 pages however, the more heartbreaking story of love, connection, loneliness and masculinity begins to take form. Stories of men who engage in copious amounts of sex, drugs and pornography, in some desperate attempt to feel "something" permeate the latter half of the book which often left me reflecting on past connections and relationships within my own life.
An uncomfortable yet strangely poetic read (as poetic as describing fisting for the third time can be). I'm glad I finished this one.
An uncomfortable yet strangely poetic read (as poetic as describing fisting for the third time can be). I'm glad I finished this one.
January 5, 2025
Why do I always find reading Dennis Cooper's books so exhausting?
My favourite stories were A Herd and Wrong (What the hell was that? Barely two pages into the short story and I already had to put the book down 3 or 4 times to scream or take a breath. It was fun. Felt a bit like reading a fever dream)
My favourite stories were A Herd and Wrong (What the hell was that? Barely two pages into the short story and I already had to put the book down 3 or 4 times to scream or take a breath. It was fun. Felt a bit like reading a fever dream)
July 11, 2023
Cooper made the rounds on twitter recently for an interview portion where he tries to explain why he hates Lars Von Trier. If you want to know why I don’t think this collection is very good you can read his comments on LVT and apply those criticisms to this work
August 5, 2021
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ 💫
Critical Score: B+
Reader Score: B
Reading Experience: 📚 📚
In the wide range of Cooper’s voices, I’d classify this set of stories as literary melancholia. Drab, well done, vague, artsy. Not much fun, but accomplished.
My ranking:
“A Herd” A- / B+. A gradual but moving meditation on hazy loss and violent lust.
“Dear Secret Diary” A- / B+. Wonderfully scattered and engaging. I wish this were much longer than a few pages, and in fact it’s really incomplete at this length.
“Dinner” A- / B+. Really hot but also quietly depressing. Subtle and understated, which I’ve warmed up to.
“Wrong” A- / B+. Melancholy and smartly modern. A worthy title piece.
“Container” B+ / B+. This gripping flash piece pulls an evocative metaphor out of its meta finish, even if it doesn’t have much more to it than that.
“Square One” A- / B-. The braininess is admirable and inventive, if a bit of a mental gymnastic.
“He Cried” B / B. Mysterious but sparse. Evidence that Cooper’s gay serial killer content never tires, but packs a weaker punch in this shorter story.
“Epilogue” B+ / B-. Feels incomplete, but on to something. The meta element is a little nauseating for me.
“Introducing Horror Hospital” B / B-. Effectively grungy and sad, but also pretty sluggish.
“Safe” B / D+. Super long and I can barely tell you what it’s about. But I’m pretty sure it was beautifully written. Struggled to get through it, found myself lost most of the time.
Critical Score: B+
Reader Score: B
Reading Experience: 📚 📚
In the wide range of Cooper’s voices, I’d classify this set of stories as literary melancholia. Drab, well done, vague, artsy. Not much fun, but accomplished.
My ranking:
“A Herd” A- / B+. A gradual but moving meditation on hazy loss and violent lust.
“Dear Secret Diary” A- / B+. Wonderfully scattered and engaging. I wish this were much longer than a few pages, and in fact it’s really incomplete at this length.
“Dinner” A- / B+. Really hot but also quietly depressing. Subtle and understated, which I’ve warmed up to.
“Wrong” A- / B+. Melancholy and smartly modern. A worthy title piece.
“Container” B+ / B+. This gripping flash piece pulls an evocative metaphor out of its meta finish, even if it doesn’t have much more to it than that.
“Square One” A- / B-. The braininess is admirable and inventive, if a bit of a mental gymnastic.
“He Cried” B / B. Mysterious but sparse. Evidence that Cooper’s gay serial killer content never tires, but packs a weaker punch in this shorter story.
“Epilogue” B+ / B-. Feels incomplete, but on to something. The meta element is a little nauseating for me.
“Introducing Horror Hospital” B / B-. Effectively grungy and sad, but also pretty sluggish.
“Safe” B / D+. Super long and I can barely tell you what it’s about. But I’m pretty sure it was beautifully written. Struggled to get through it, found myself lost most of the time.
June 13, 2008
Dennis Cooper is one of the most underrated American authors. He has a vision and skill to go to places that most people wouldn't want to go there. He's a great explorer and I don't mind him driving me to those dark locations.
December 10, 2011
one of my favorite collections of stories
September 12, 2015
Wish I had read this earlier in my Cooper reading because this is the book where it finally clicked for me what he is doing in these super disturbing books.
Read
November 26, 2022definitely my favorite prose I've read from him
December 19, 2025
3.75 stars
As a study on thematic formation it is a pretty great collection. Most of the work comes from years prior to any of Cooper's novels and as such you can see these early attempts at articulating ideas that remain important in his repertoire, see his approach to these reoccurring, plaguing themes take primitive shape, then refine. As individual pieces few of these stories reach the standard I sort of expect or at least want from Cooper. "Square One" was really great, same with "Safe" which seems to me the crowning story in this collection, definitely the longest and it could just be that when given more space he writes better fiction. I was looking for "Safe" for a while as he published it on its own, but it's out of print and difficult to find. I thought I would not get to read it so I'm glad to have its complete text here somewhere people can access it more easily. It was the best piece by a couple throws in this collection.
In his later work, almost all of his 'current' narratives become usurped by the past. The past dominates his work and textually and structurally dominates the present or thoughts of the future in his work. He writes a retreat or a look back into the past as a response to or shield from the present or the waiting for a future. What gripped me the most about this collection in regards to that was how the mechanism is reflected in the physical. One of the most noticeable common 'moments' in this collection is the act of looking over one's shoulder/looking back. Almost always this physical action is in response to a feeling of anticipation or to waiting. In every or nearly every story, someone is on his stomach looking back over his shoulder. It reflects exactly how the past works upon the present in all of Cooper's books. It's a very human response: we turn back or review when confronted with uncertainty and look to the past to make sense of the future. This sentiment doesn't come from me and I'm not sure now who or what it did originally come from, but I saw it once described as walking backwards into the future. Technically blind to anything that may happen, all new events taking us by surprise, we see with completeness all that has happened already and it is our only foothold into the unknown. The innocence of looking over one's shoulder is focused on in this collection, but the act taken into structural elements of a story is Cooper's entire basis of relaying a feeling or a narrative. You do not know what is about to happen to you. You can guess but rather than guess you turn your face from the unknown, and look back over your shoulder. Some kind of clue in everything already written. I thought that was real good.
As a study on thematic formation it is a pretty great collection. Most of the work comes from years prior to any of Cooper's novels and as such you can see these early attempts at articulating ideas that remain important in his repertoire, see his approach to these reoccurring, plaguing themes take primitive shape, then refine. As individual pieces few of these stories reach the standard I sort of expect or at least want from Cooper. "Square One" was really great, same with "Safe" which seems to me the crowning story in this collection, definitely the longest and it could just be that when given more space he writes better fiction. I was looking for "Safe" for a while as he published it on its own, but it's out of print and difficult to find. I thought I would not get to read it so I'm glad to have its complete text here somewhere people can access it more easily. It was the best piece by a couple throws in this collection.
In his later work, almost all of his 'current' narratives become usurped by the past. The past dominates his work and textually and structurally dominates the present or thoughts of the future in his work. He writes a retreat or a look back into the past as a response to or shield from the present or the waiting for a future. What gripped me the most about this collection in regards to that was how the mechanism is reflected in the physical. One of the most noticeable common 'moments' in this collection is the act of looking over one's shoulder/looking back. Almost always this physical action is in response to a feeling of anticipation or to waiting. In every or nearly every story, someone is on his stomach looking back over his shoulder. It reflects exactly how the past works upon the present in all of Cooper's books. It's a very human response: we turn back or review when confronted with uncertainty and look to the past to make sense of the future. This sentiment doesn't come from me and I'm not sure now who or what it did originally come from, but I saw it once described as walking backwards into the future. Technically blind to anything that may happen, all new events taking us by surprise, we see with completeness all that has happened already and it is our only foothold into the unknown. The innocence of looking over one's shoulder is focused on in this collection, but the act taken into structural elements of a story is Cooper's entire basis of relaying a feeling or a narrative. You do not know what is about to happen to you. You can guess but rather than guess you turn your face from the unknown, and look back over your shoulder. Some kind of clue in everything already written. I thought that was real good.
June 11, 2023
my first cooper that's straightforward prose instead of an experimentation in the structure of the novel, and it's astonishing to read. he writes with such an effortless beauty, frequently getting lost in it's poeticism. like his other work, he effortlessly shifts between moods, sometimes it's the funniest shit you've ever read and sometimes he's making you cry. through a wide range of short story topics (some more gruesome than others), cooper explores loss, grief, longing, regret, and sex, all with genuine emotion. i was frequently in awe, he's a fantastically singular writer, he pulls off stuff in here no one else could. beautiful work that only improves as i think more about it, i can't wait to read more of his stuff.
January 18, 2025
Cooper's usual themes, motifs, and obsessions are scattered between a series of short stories, typical homosexual depravity despite insistent apathy, which largely hold formal interest in the development of a "God," the haunting segue between life and the afterlife, an ambiguous diary (written by an AIDS patient?), a triptych of Mark-ed desire, and the epilogue which treats itself as a self-reflexive departure by the author himself. I prefer his novels for their protracted entrenchment within his repetitive characters, but Wrong never falters except in its antiquated descriptions and less refined style at points compared to Cooper's progression from Try onward, where he arguably begins to flourish (in spite of my love of Closer).
July 27, 2024
”Dear Mother,
I’m dead. That was me in the abandoned house. I fooled them. You can sleep now. I don’t think I miss you, but I thank you for all that you’ve . . . “
The stories A Herd (probably my favorite), Safe and My Mark are all must-read masterpieces that anyone who enjoys reading should read at least once. The same can be more or less said about all the short stories in this fantastic collection by the greatest writer of all time. So beautiful, lively, and unbearably cold.
I’m dead. That was me in the abandoned house. I fooled them. You can sleep now. I don’t think I miss you, but I thank you for all that you’ve . . . “
The stories A Herd (probably my favorite), Safe and My Mark are all must-read masterpieces that anyone who enjoys reading should read at least once. The same can be more or less said about all the short stories in this fantastic collection by the greatest writer of all time. So beautiful, lively, and unbearably cold.
November 1, 2024
Glad I read it mostly to see some of the progression that lead to George Miles Cycle but I wish I had given myself a bit of a break between that and this. Some of it felt a little too like rough drafts that weren’t quite as good.
Maybe I’ll disavow this review upon a reread someday as there was a lot I still really enjoyed and the language was more dense in a way I can see myself coming back.
The third section of Safe is really great.
Maybe I’ll disavow this review upon a reread someday as there was a lot I still really enjoyed and the language was more dense in a way I can see myself coming back.
The third section of Safe is really great.
August 11, 2023
I know I read everything in this but I remember very little of it. I think this was ironically the Wrong book to start with for getting into Dennis Cooper. It feels like this collection rewards fans of Cooper with a lot of the stories almost being the same in terms of ideas and themes. I'll maybe go back to this after checking out The Sluts and the George Miles cycle
August 12, 2023
Very like Dennis Cooper to start a short story collection with one of the most repulsive things I've ever read and end it with a haunting and moving story about loss (imo - it's not made clear exactly what happened) and its connection to art.
"Joe is alive in the work of an artist obssessed with him, trapped in a cave-in somewhere in these long winded sentences."
"Joe is alive in the work of an artist obssessed with him, trapped in a cave-in somewhere in these long winded sentences."
January 2, 2020
Somewhat repetitive, but the writing is beautiful. There isn't much to it; a lot of sex is had, some death happens. If you like Cooper's other work then it is worth a read but there's not really anything special here
August 5, 2021
DC is a TRULY monomaniacal writer ... u read anything of his and yr reading everything of his. kind of pointless to pick out any specific stories here since it's all blown-out twinks with black eyes getting fisted by weird obsessives, but i rly liked "introducing horror hospital" & "a herd!" surprised by how bad & overreaching some of the prose in the "safe" triptych was tho ...
January 18, 2023
held in thrall by sheer style, force -- I think Dennis Cooper's a writer's writer -- but I'm still trying to figure out what he's doing with all the sex and death and violence mixed up together (apparently love too, but I don't know if I believe him).
October 14, 2023
Pretty classic DC. Couple gems. Felt like he was really coming into his style here, but it's far from his most realized stuff (Frisk, Try, etc.). I always love his shitty hardcore band stories haha. Never a wasted dose with my fav.
April 26, 2019
Disturbing themes. Stream-of-consciousness presentation. Characters that I had a difficult time empathizing with or ultimately caring about.
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