Lurid & Cute

“The narrator of [Lurid & Cute] may be Thirlwell’s best creation yet.”―Andrew Ervin The New York Times Book Review (Editors’ Choice)“Lurid & Cute is a simple story of mayhem and ennui almost a caper but told with such satisfying ironies and verbal dexterity that everything is Technicolor again. So alive so inventive so very good.”―Joshua FerrisLurid & Cute takes place in the suburbs of a giant city where our narrator lives at home with his parents together with his wife and dog. He has had a good education and until recently a good job. But then the lurid overtakes him―and whether this transformation is caused by our hero’s present unemployment or his feelings for a girl who is not his wife or the return of his old friend Hiro it’s hard to say. What’s definite is that it sets off a chain of events that feels to those inside it narcotic and neurotic like one long and terrible descent―complete with lies deceit and chicanery: one orgy one brothel and a series of firearms disputes.