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A review by futurama1979
Guide by Dennis Cooper
4.0
there's so much about the craft of this book that fascinates me. if it wasn't a very defined and carefully constructed part in a larger structure, if it was just a standalone, guide wouldn't have done it for me, i don't think. i'm hesitant to say even that, because it does have obvious merit, and a ton of it. but it's definitely the 'furthest' book in cycle from its subjects, if you will. cooper keeps the audience very separate from the story. in the context of its place in the cycle, though, guide becomes totally integral. it counterbalances [b:Frisk|856165|Frisk|Dennis Cooper|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327937428l/856165._SY75_.jpg|50337], and we have, suddenly, another unreliable narrator named dennis. i found guide's dennis endlessly and grimly fascinating. where the dennis in frisk overelaborated, fabricated, this dennis is holding truths back. you're left with a deep feeling of unease upon finishing: what he told us was dark, yes, but what actually happens must be bleaker, darker. he admits to us himself that he's writing a story to protect luke's character. it just makes you think and think.
i've sort of more or less been tracking the storylines and portrayal of the george characters that appear throughout the cycle, and this book was a doozy for that. while on one hand, there seems to be the least defined presence of george in this book, his many representations fading in and out of the narrative and never getting much time or focus. he occupies bit parts that are killed off or become irrelevant, he stays at the outskirts and fringes of the book, for the most part. but at the same time, there's a very short, fragmented story dennis tells at the end, about a boy named george miles. he narrates a quick interaction, a memory of an interaction. this, to me, was the clearest and least obscured representation of george in the entire cycle so far. it just put me in this place where no matter how [b:Period|51589|Period|Dennis Cooper|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1386926706l/51589._SY75_.jpg|50336] goes, i'm on the brink of understanding what he means. george, not cooper. and if period discloses nothing more, i genuinely believe cooper's level of craft is so high that the feeling of cusping on understanding george is what he means.
i've sort of more or less been tracking the storylines and portrayal of the george characters that appear throughout the cycle, and this book was a doozy for that. while on one hand, there seems to be the least defined presence of george in this book, his many representations fading in and out of the narrative and never getting much time or focus. he occupies bit parts that are killed off or become irrelevant, he stays at the outskirts and fringes of the book, for the most part. but at the same time, there's a very short, fragmented story dennis tells at the end, about a boy named george miles. he narrates a quick interaction, a memory of an interaction. this, to me, was the clearest and least obscured representation of george in the entire cycle so far. it just put me in this place where no matter how [b:Period|51589|Period|Dennis Cooper|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1386926706l/51589._SY75_.jpg|50336] goes, i'm on the brink of understanding what he means. george, not cooper. and if period discloses nothing more, i genuinely believe cooper's level of craft is so high that the feeling of cusping on understanding george is what he means.