Rachel Kushner

Arriving in New York to pursue a creative career in the raucous 1970s art scene, Reno joins a group of dreamers and raconteurs before falling in love with the estranged son of an Italian motorcycle scion and succumbing to a radical social movement in 1977 Italy. By the National Book Award-nominated author of Telex from Cuba.

A Novel

The Flamethrowers

Chris Dailey

Cerebral and observant prose power this novel set in 1970's New York and Rome with some flashbacks to the early 20th century. Focused on a gaggle of Avant Garde artists, anarchists and ne'er-do-wells and told through the eyes of a young, striving artist/motorcyclist called Reno, the story ostensibly dives into the art world but really is a collection of portraits of people. None of these folks are particularly happy, centered or even good, but they are complex, nuanced, and equally hateable as they are loveable. The writing uncannily captures the ordinary in highly observant ways and is full of phrases that wonderfully encapsulates the moment. Art and creativity are center stage but self-fulfillment, family, status, pettiness, labor politics, and loneliness all play a part in fleshing out the novel.

Rachel

I was looking forward to this book for awhile, the cover, the description, and the reviews all made it seem interesting. It isn't. The book focuses on Reno who likes motorcycles and art falls for one of the founder's sons of her favorite motorcycle company who introduces her to the pretentious New York art scene in the 1970s. There are a few chapters about Italy's history and the motorcycle company's history, these chapters end up being the most interesting part of the story. The art parties and people Reno talks to at them bored me and made it hard to read the book. It got more interesting when she went to Italy with her boyfriend and stayed at his mother's house. (view spoiler)[I thought Reno would see what she cared about in new York was bullshit and what was happening in Italy was real and should be documented, but no she goes back to New York and stay in the same boring ass art crowd.  (hide spoiler)]The rest of the book felt so pointless. Very disappointed.

* Shortlisted for the Folio Prize 2014* *Longlisted for the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction* Reno mounts her motorcycle and sets a collision course for New York. In 1977 the city is alive with art, sensuality and danger. She falls in with a bohemian clique colonising downtown and the lines between reality and performance begin to bleed. A passionate affair with the scion of an Italian tyre empire carries Reno to Milan, where she is swept along by the radical left and drawn into a spiral of violence and betrayal. The Flamethrowers is an audacious novel that explores the perplexing allure of femininity, fakery and fear. In Reno we encounter a heroine like no other. Best Books of the Year: * Guardian * New York Times * The Times * Observer * Financial Times * New Yorker * Telegraph * Slate * Oprah * Vogue * Time * Scotsman * Evening Standard * Shortlisted for the National Book Awards 2013

Gary Homewood

Motorbike speed record attempts, the birth of Futurism, 70s lower east side art scene and Italian political protests in an involving coming of age story. Plenty of ideas and imagery that will stay with you.

Laurin C Guthrie

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.

The Flamethrowers A Novel

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