Paperback Original

By Will Rhode

Book Overview

Joshua King has more reasons than most young writers to produce that Great First Novel-and they're sitting in his father's bank account. Before dying of a tragic Viagra overdose, Josh's father put a... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1594480141
• ISBN13: 9781594480140
• Release Date: April 2004
• Publisher: Riverhead Books
• Length: 464 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.1" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

definitely a must

Will Rhode is a hip and exciting new writer that is not at all about putting on aires. I thoroughly enjoyed this little known novel and its many foreign adventures. I even have a friend who got the tattoo of one of the girls in the novel, on a unrelated but interesting side note.

Very Original

I can see this becoming a movie. It's got a little bit of everything. Josh King's father dies from a viagra overdose and leaves nothing behind for his son. Well, not until Josh writes a best-selling novel including his father as a main character. So the story begins with Josh finding himself in India, searching for that novel. Enter the beautiful girl in distress. The girl that Josh thinks he can help and does everything, including devise a plan to scam the Indian Mafia, to help her. Enter the best friend who is trying to become the next big thing in Bollywood. His mom makes all of his connections but he has made one of his own that will help Josh enter the dark world of Indian mobsters, drugs, and diamonds. Throw in a roadtrip across the country to the Pakistani border, deception, and near death experiences and you've got yourself paperback original.

a really good book

I think anyone can pick up this book and get a good read . I found it very entertaining. I enjoyed it very much. Check it out.

This Same Novel is Titled 'Paperback Raita'...

...I call it 'Bollywood (Not so) Squares'....the novel starts out with the full letter from Joshua King's deceased father--in the form of a challenge and a will. Get off your duff and do something constructive or you not get a penny of my estate. As in Josh's case, he has to write a best selling novel with his father in it and he can claim five million pounds as his inheritance. Did I mention that the old man died by either a viagra overdose or the car accident he had arranged?Well, whatta way to go, in either case. Josh, however, is your typical twentysomething who doesn't see much urgency to anything save travelling, getting high and trying to keep out of jail. When we find him he is in the fabled dregs of New/Old Delhi. One night after a police raid at the hash house disguised as a hotel, he runs into a beautiful Indian goddess--Yasmin--she tells Josh that her boyfriend was caught in that raid and thrown in prison for supposedly a drug violation and they require something upwards to a quarter million bucks to get him out. Josh doesn't have that kind of money around, neither does the Bollywood hanger on Quintin (Sanjay)...but he does have the dubious distinction of being a ersatz journalist who 'writes' for the Hindu News. Maybe he can make that money from an advance on a work in progress. Maybe not. Anyway, one night in another raid Josh and Yasmin get out by the skin of their teeth, and when they return to the Green (hotel hash) he finds his Passport and that important letter written by his father missing....does he decide to high tail it? Nope. He and his buds concocts a plan to rob the big drug lord Baba. That way they'll have plenty of money to get Yasmin's dude outta prison, Josh can get his passport back and can write about how he robbed Baba and have a lil mad money for futher travels. Does his plot work? Hmmmm...you'd have to get the book to see for yourself. This novel has the distinction of being whats called 'backpack lit'. It's done in short entertaining chapters with punchy, hip dialog with an international intrigue backdrop, but not like those WW II or Cold War spy novels. It's waaay to cool for that. Highly recommended.