Little New York Bastard: A Memoir

By M. Dylan Raskin

Book Overview

Meet M. Dylan Raskin -- "MDR" to friends. At 22, he's the opposite of hip: a working-class college dropout who lives with his mother in Queens -- "Flushing-Stinking-Queens," to be precise. It's not that he doesn't like New York, exactly, it's just that lately he's felt more and more at odds with everything -- his family, his generation, his hometown, even himself. One day he gets fed up and decides to take his freedom on the road, setting off for Chicago in a quixotic attempt to turn his life around. Little New York Bastard is the story of an outsider for the ages, a mixed-up kid who knows what he wants in life but has no idea how to get it. Raskin's anger is palpable and his wounds are unabashedly raw, and readers will appreciate the immediacy and honesty of his story. Equal parts road story, coming-of-age memoir, and existential manifesto -- this debut is in the tradition of cult classics like Youth in Revolt and The Fuck Up.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1568582749
• ISBN13: 9781568582740
• Release Date: October 2003
• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.5" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

Substance Ranting

I got more than I bargained for with this book. I purchased it because I was told it contained a gazillion references to the movie "Halloween" which is one of my favorites. At first I thought I'd just flip through it to check for the Halloween stuff, but after reading the first page I couldn't bring myself to skip anything; Raskin's narrative voice is more conversational and engaging than any other I've encountered, and his tendency to occasionally deviate from that style when describing his walk through midtown Manhattan or when describing his mother is the only thing that kept me reminded that this was a literary book I was reading. Raskin's rhetorical devices do not age, or in fact change at all, throughout the 200 and some pages of this odd little book: There's the cascade of adjectives ("low, hideous, disgusting pieces of human excrement who polluted that school,") the parade of nicknames ("little Miss Gold Digger," "some fat-assed Napoleanic midget named Frank," "the android,")and a wealth of undisguised paranoia ("Everyone was looking at me like I was insane, but I didn't care. To hell with them.")Anybody who differs, intentionally or not, from Raskin's hilarious but razor-thin idealogy is immediately declared a Nazi or a Bolshevik: The Days Inn becomes the "Days-Nazi-Inn," Tinley Park becomes "Tinley-Nazi-Park," a young woman who works as a receptionist at an expensive hotel is "the front desk Nazi;" even some poor Chicago bookstore, whose political beliefs we can safely say are not known, becomes "some Bolshevik bookstore." At the same time, "wonderful people like Dr. Wohl," and others involved for any reason in catering to Raskin's hypersensitive needs, get unqualified praise. In review form, this language may lose some of its effect when given Raskin's speedy delivery.Even if you don't appreciate sarcasm and hypersensitivity for its own sake, Little New York Bastard is worth looking at, not least for its demonstration of the circular nature of extreme narcissism. The book was prominent enough in the back end of 2003 to warrant coverage in The New York Daily News and The Village Voice, and its unusual ideas continue to play to a wide audience of Chicago-based book clubs.

A Genuine Book That is Understood ONLY by The Genuine

WARNING: This book is not for the humorless or the wannabe writers of the world who hate anybody who gets there first ... it is not for the "sophisticated" literature apes who enjoy reading Simon and Schuster releases that are about as unique as the Ford Taurus ... and it is not for the yuppies or the offspring of yuppies ... you will not understand it and I doubt it was meant for you to understand. To put it plainly, Little New York Bastard is for the working class young common man or woman who isn't impressed by the semicolon or the Mercedes Benz.Since this book is genuine, reviews like the one from "Erin" who viciously try to tear it apart, and which are mean just for the sake of being mean and even go so low as to exploit 9/11, do not surprise ... in fact, it's all too obvious by the vitriol in such reviews that the reason they hate the book so much is because much of Raskin's anger is directed at them and people like them! They see themselves in what Raskin is saying and it frustrates the hell out of them ... nice try though, honey. Sorry, but not all of us are so blind we can't see through your self-loathing jealousy.(...)Little New York Bastard is one of those books you're either going "to get" or a book you won't "get" at all. I "get it" and so does the rest of my book club ... fortunately for us, we have a sense of humor and our skimpy panties don't make us start doing the twitch each time a raw scrappy book comes around ... all of us at the Write or Wrong Book Club highly recommend this one of a kind memoir. Yee Haw,Tina(...)

Recommended

After the death of his dog, and then of his father, the 20-something author of this memoir leaves Queens for Chicago, hoping to find authenticity but instead finding just another city. Original.

Definitely Worth Buying

While this book doesn't have the rawness of other similar down-and-out underground urban classics like Arthur Nesesian's The F**k-up or The Losers' Club by Richard Perez, it remains a wonderful, passionately written, totally entertaining coming-of-age story of a 'loser' who realizes he can't escape from himself no matter which city he winds up in: New York or Chicago. The main character, with all his ranting and raving, psuedo-intellectual posturing, petty likes and dislikes, and half-baked ideas, certainly comes across as very familiar -- and is always engaging. In the end, I truly enjoyed this novel, found it hilarious, and would certainly recommend it to all my friends. One up for M. Dylan Raskin! Also recommended: Dogrun, WILL@epicqwest.com by Tom Grimes

FINALLY

I've never heard of M. Dylan Raskin before. I bought this book because I saw a review of it in a magazine and thought it sounded interesting. Well I can honestly say that it is my new favorite. I've never read anything like it before...it is weird, it is sad, it is unbelievably funny and it is so true! From the opening page the narrator had me in a trance, like I was completely engulfed in his world, and he didn't let me go until the very end. I wish I knew him personally. I feel like I do sort of know him personally after reading this. I felt like he was talking to me the whole time I was reading. Very unique experience. I will cherish this book. Ten stars.