Bolt Risk

By Ann Wood

Charles Bukowksi, Hubert Selby Jr., and Denis Johnson are familiar names in the literature about the druggies, rockers, criminals, and whores who habituate the dark side of American fiction, but there are few women writers in the club. Enter Ann Wood, an award-winning journalist who's been down and out and survived to laugh it off. With a frighteningly matter-of-fact style and no social agenda, Wood is an American original who writes like a female Charles Bukowksi: crude, rude, and raw; often very funny, sometimes shocking, disarmingly poignant, and incredibly readable.

In a story with parallels to the author's own life, Bolt Risk is an unapologetic bildungsroman about a young woman from an exclusive New England college who becomes a personal assistant, otherwise known as a "paid butt-wiper," to a Hollywood sitcom star.

Fleeing the boredom of the tinsel town fringe, she lands a job as an exotic dancer and falls for Adam, lead guitarist of the popular thrash band Z, six feet four inches of raw talent, stud beauty, and unrestrained ego. Thus begins a droll and harrowing ride through the underworld of Los Angeles strip clubs, dive bars, and drug motels that sends her to a mental hospital, where she is astutely classified as a "bolt risk," a kid who is very likely to escape.

Here the author re-creates the absurd daily world of Girl, Interrupted with a remarkable toughness that laughs in the face of institutional horror.

Ann Wood writes like few women before her. If Charles Bukowski had been a woman, Bolt Risk might have been his first novel.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0972898468
• ISBN13: 9780972898461
• Release Date: November 2005
• Publisher: Leapfrog Press
• Length: 160 Pages
• Weight: 0.42 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.1" x 7.5"

Customer Reviews

Mozart Was A Genius

Most of us agree that Mozart possessed genius. As to whether or not Ann Wood does or not, the jury is still out. But tucked inside her slender little novel Bolt Risk is a vision of hell, limned cleverly and rendered in garish, unashamed bold strokes. Like Van Gogh, Wood's narrator may be insane, or just culturally misunderstood. In any event, they both perform insane acts: Vincent lopping off an ear, Wood's heroine engages in auto-lobotomy by self-abasement. This is chemical self-abjurement at it's most entertaining. We follow her queasy path to enlightenment though many of us would rather she go it alone. Someone cited Janet Fitch as a writer similar to Wood in another review; this reader doesn't see it. Rather, think of the Denis Johnson stories collected in "Jesus Son," or the breezily uapologetic tone of Bruce Jay Friedman and Terry Southern. Not that her prose sounds like any of these, particularly. Wood is an America original.

A Riveting Read

The title of this honestly told tale refers to the designation given to the protagonist when confined to a psychiatric facility after a breakdown, hardly surprising after her experiences with the seamy side of the sex, drug and rock & roll scene in LA where she and countless otherwise bright and hopeful young women attempt to "make it" in Hollywood. Because the story is based on many of the author's own experiences there, her voice has an authentic ring which draws the reader in. The writing is wonderful and no words are wasted. If you liked Janet Fitch's "Paint it Black", you'll love "Bolt Risk". I couldn't put it down!