Patricide - by D Foy (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

D. Foy's second novel is a tornado of brutal Americana. Patricide is a heavy metal Huck Finn that whips up the haunted melancholy of Kerouac's Doctor Sax, a novel of introspection and youth in its corruption that seethes with the deadly obsession of Moby-Dick, and the darkness of Joy Williams' State of Grace. Beyond the story of a boy growing up in a family derailed by a hapless father, Patricide is a search for meaning and identity within the strange secrecy of the family. This is an existential novel of wild power, of memories, and of mourning-in-life, softened, always, by the tenderness at its core. With it, Foy's place among the outstanding voices in American literature is guaranteed.

Matthew Specktor says, "I already knew Foy was a genius. Now I'm beginning to think he's a saint." Scott Cheshire calls Patricide "a true work of art--addictive, hypnotic, relentless." Dennis Cooper calls this bold, exhilarating novel simply "fantastic."

Stalking Horse Press donates from the proceeds of each of its books to a humanitarian or non-profit organization of the author's choosing.

Review Quotes

"In D. Foy's 'Patricide', the prose is so sharp and evocative that I feel as if I'm watching camcordered home movies that I both treasure and fear. It is as if Denis Johnson wrote 'Jesus' Son' with an anvil. There is blood and violence and there is heartbreak and heat and there is life and death on these pages. This book is a conjuring even as it is a killing." -Linsday Hunter "Those of us who've been following D. Foy's writing for a while will be gratified to find, in 'Patricide', another marvel of emotional intelligence, another heady cocktail of high linguistic invention and vernacular speech. Foy's writing contains such energy, such sheer firepower, it's tempting to cast him as a word merchant in the Stanley Elkin vein, a superlative technician working in the dark American shadow of Melville, etc. Only-such a description would omit Foy's greatest virtue, namely, his wisdom. It's one thing to describe the bleaker corners of experience with such full-throated vitality, and yet quite another to do so with as much empathy and equipoise. I already knew Foy was a genius. Now I'm beginning to think he's a saint." -Matthew Specktor "'Patricide' is a torrent: bruising, beautiful, impossible to shake. D. Foy writes with an intelligence and a ferocity that is exquisitely his own." -Laura van den Berg "I want to be seared by what I read. Marked. Branded. Every book I open, I want to be changed by what I find inside. Too often that doesn't happen. With 'Patricide' it did, glory be. If you're looking for a novel that makes you feel good, don't pick this one up. But if you want to be marked-if you want an education about life and all its brutality and tenderness-this is the book for you." -Ron Currie "The fraught relationship between fathers and sons has been poured over by the likes of Rick Moody, Ivan Turgenev, Steven King, Pat Conroy, Philip Roth, and Cormac McCarthy. What D. Foy does in 'Patricide' is blast fully into the ranks of the masters. A frightening, touching, challenging, and emotionally charged masterpiece." -Christian Kiefer "Biting as Beckett and honey-hued as a Tom Waits ramshackle ballad, D. Foy's 'Patricide' is a spiraling and spiteful spire of memory's two great gods, nostalgia and blame. With it, Foy has delivered a true work of art-addictive, hypnotic, relentless." -Scott Cheshire "I'm a fan of Foy, not just for the crazy tales he cooks up, but for his formidable use of language. He writes sentences that are both beautiful and volatile at the same time. 'Patricide', like a lovely concussion, will leave you dizzy and desperate for the next page." -Joshua Mohr "D. Foy's sentences are a storm, and his second novel thunders its own beautiful, brutal weather. 'Patricide' is a gale-force to be reckoned with." -Anne Valente "Warning: This book, 'Patricide', is not messing around. This book is going to take you with it. Do not fight this book, it will win. This book will bite, but you will like it. This book will hurt, but in the best of ways. Do not be afraid of this book. Be thankful D. Foy has made it for us." -Elizabeth Crane "Hurricane Father rips through the pages of 'Patricide'. We stand there stunned, surveying the wreckage, only to realize that this is just the eye: another wall of storm is coming-Hurricane Mother, Hurricane Addiction, Hurricane Marriage. D. Foy animates and maps these weather systems of life, but he's less a meteorologist in a studio than a storm chaser with his head out the window of a van, screaming brilliance dead into the wind." -Will Chancellor "'Patricide' is a brooding, painful, and beautifully written book about being raised into damage by a damaged man. D. Foy has given us a how-to guide for the excision of the father and-just barely-the survival of it." -Brian Evenson