FLAMETHROWER takes on art, privilege, love, and revolution with a courage as rare in literature as in life
FLAMETHROWER by Rachel Kushner (Simon & Schuster) The heroine of Rachel Kushner’s FLAMETHROWER is not unlike the young woman in Joan Didion’s Play it Like It Lays. Both are truth seekers, curious about how to find their way in capricious professional worlds, are unflinching observers with spot-on perceptions, and have more on their minds than men. But while Didion's heroine has a similar integrity, she hasn't the sense of risk and physical courage that makes Reno an epic heroine. When Reno, an art school grad from Nevada, sells her cherished Valero motorcycle for money to go to New York, she’s pushing destiny. She's ridden motorcycles since 14, is comfortable with speed and the desolate highway but has risked the familiar for a Mott Street walk up, in a city where she's completely alone. Her response is to film the neighborhood so she's got a comfort zone in alien New York. Then one night in a Chelsea Bar she allows herself to be picked up by denizens ...