God Jr. — Dennis Cooper

The author of Closer “transcends the formulaic with exquisite writing on the level of Rimbaud's Illuminations . . . an American masterpiece” (James McCourt, Los Angeles Times).
 
God Jr. is the story of Jim, a father who survived the car crash that killed his teenage son Tommy. Tommy was distant, transfixed by video games and pop culture, and a mystery to the man who raised him. Now, disabled by the accident, yearning somehow to absolve his own guilt over the crash, Jim becomes obsessed with a mysterious building Tommy drew repetitively in a notebook before he died. As the fixation grows, Jim starts to take on elements of his son -- at the expense of his job and marriage -- but is he connecting with who Tommy truly was?
 
A tender, wrenching look at guilt, grief, and the tenuous bonds of family, God Jr. is unlike anything Dennis Cooper has yet written. It is a triumphant achievement from one of our finest writers.
 
“This beautiful book is a first-person narration of how grief grows and morphs after a death, and its style and naked pain make the reader feel like he has suffered a concussion . . . Carefully wrought in Cooper's trademark short, clipped sentences. There's no room for the pain to hide, and Cooper lays it bare with humor and striking honesty.” -- Time Out Chicago
 
“God Jr. is probably Cooper's richest, most philosophical novel to date. If the cycle were a video game, this would be its Easter egg.” -- SF Gate
 
“Absorbing . . . carefully spare, pop-cultures prose that has earned him a cult following.” -- Entertainment Weekly