Mall

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Penzler Pick, January 2001: Here Eric Bogosian, a playwright and actor, takes his keen eye to that particularly American venue, the mall. On any given day, the mall attracts hundreds of thousands of diverse characters who are not always there to shop. On this particular night, Bogosian concentrates on five of those characters, suburbanites who interact with each other in ways that are, for the most part, destructive.

Michel is an Haitian immigrant who works as a security guard at the mall. He's been there all evening and he spends his time thinking about his wife who died tragically. He misses her, but he will be forced to put all thoughts of her away as he becomes the first to deal with the horrendous events that start to unfold around closing time.

Jeff is a teenager who hooks up with his friends and drops acid. He wonders if Adelle likes him. She seems to, but she also seems to like his friend Beckett. Jeff's trip will get more surreal as the night progresses and will take him places he's never been before.

Donna is married with a son, but it doesn't seem to be enough. She is at the mall looking for romance and a little adventure. She'll find both.

Danny is a young businessman whose fetish for young women modeling underwear takes him to the women's dressing room at J.C. Penney. There he will find his own private nightmare.

And affecting them all is Mal. Mal is a speed freak who, before setting off for the mall with a car full of weapons, murders his mother and sets fire to his house. He is looking forward to an evening of more murder and mayhem.

FROM OUR EDITORS

As an avatar of the underground, Eric Bogosian has spent more than 20 years writing now-classic plays and monologues, such as subUrbia, Talk Radio, and Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll. In Mall, a darkly comic debut novel, Bogosian offers a fresh, penetrating glimpse into the troubled soul of the American suburbanite that is as provocative as his theater pieces.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

From the award-winning avatar of contemporary urban theater and author of such modern classics as Talk Radio and subUrbia comes this outrageous novel about five suburbanites whose lives intersect in one violent and life-altering night -- at the local mall.

Mal, a thirtysomething speed freak, shoots his mother, torches his house, and heads to the local mall with a sack of weapons and a plan for more mayhem. Danny, a voyeuristic businessman with a fetish for young underwear models, is caught by mall security peeking into dressing rooms at JCPenney. Jeff, a teenager with existential troubles, drops acid and departs on a philosophical nightmare. Donna, a hungry, unsettled housewife, is on the lookout for a one-night stand. Michel, a Haitian immigrant and mall security guard, seeks salvation. All long for a kind of satisfaction, and this longing leads them to the modern plaza of possibility, the shopping mall, where their appetites converge in explosive ways.

Satirical and provocative, Mall is an eye-opening look at suburban life and the idea of "normalcy." In this, his first novel, Eric Bogosian delivers a dark, hilarious, and biting commentary on an American culture fraught with sex, drugs, violence, and congested thinking.

FROM THE CRITICS

Book Magazine

In this incendiary first novel, a Columbine-style massacre at a suburban shopping mall throws disparate—and desperate—lives up for grabs, rearranging the pieces of society's puzzle in revelatory fashion. Through a series of short chapters that explode like cherry bombs, Bogosian sears the psyches of his characters, which include a speed freak turned guerrilla commando, a housewife of insatiable appetites, a successful businessman who is ashamed of his secrets and a drop-out stoner with a penchant for philosophical speculation. Bogosian remains the hot-button provocateur, showing the same mix of sociopathic empathy, moral urgency and lethal irony here that has distinguished his plays (Talk Radio, subUrbia) and solo performances. "Mal had spent years doing nothing, taking up space," he writes. "As far as he was concerned, that's what everyone else did as well. No one wanted to admit it. Like dumb dinosaurs caught in a pool of tar, everyone pretending that it was all OK, until it was too late." For all of the characters that he illuminates from within their darkest recesses, the voice and vision are unmistakably Bogosian's. —Don McLeese

Publishers Weekly

A faithful exegete of suburban nihilism, playwright and solo performer Bogosian delivers for his first novel a surreal "day in the life" tale that explores two of his trademark themes: suburban life and the illusory nature of "normalcy." Mal is a 30-something speed freak living with his mother in a drugged out fog, unwashed and virtually unconscious. After 90 days on crystal meth, Mal kills his mom, then goes on a rampage at the nearby mall. Bogosian uses this event to introduce a cross-section of mall life. Jeffrey, a dreadlocked teen, fantasizes about being a writer. He's got a crush on Adelle, whose narcissistic ennui he attributes to "a kind of efficiency. She's full of life but she's saving herself for the right moment...." His friend Berkeley has scored some retro windowpane acid, and so Jeff experiences Mal's fiery incursion in a hallucinatory state. Businessman Danny is a hapless, though hardly innocent, shopper at the mall, who spots Donna, an exhibitionist, sex-starved housewife performing a kinky striptease in a half-open dressing room. The police catch Danny peeping and arrest him, but then Mal, now shooting indiscriminately in the mall, pegs the cops, and Danny is left to wander around in handcuffs, which is how he runs into Adelle, who takes Danny on a sexy ride he may never recover from. While Bogosian's teen characters seem a little bit like rejects from a To Die For casting call, his droll remarks and dramatic pacing make this debut novel a typically Bogosian experience--lively and unique. If this absurdist La Ronde sometimes goes over the edge, Bogosian's stature in contemporary pop culture, and his proven ability to work (and self-publicize) in numerous media, should give his novel legs. (Nov.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

Playwright, actor, and Obie Award-winning solo performer Bogosian (Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll) has written his first novel, an entertaining success. The story opens with Malcolm, a thirtyish drug addict who still lives at home, shooting his mother in a narcotic haze. Equipped with major weaponry, he heads to the local mall, intent on wreaking havoc. His mayhem at the mall intersects the lives of four individuals who are in the wrong place at the wrong time. The novel then follows the quintet on their life-altering night. Bogosian is able to instill humor into some fairly gut-wrenching scenes. His characters are so memorable that readers will want to continue to read about them even after the book ends. While this novel won't make you afraid to go to the mall, it will make you think more carefully about the person next to you when you do. For larger fiction collections. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 7/00.]--Jeff Ayers, Seattle P.L. Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.\

Kirkus Reviews

Just another violent, surrealistic day at the most American locale of all, courtesy of the celebrated actor and performance artist's first novel.