by Stephen Wright
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Product Description
This extraordinary work that was met with both critical and popular acclaim in hardcover reads like a frightening, resonant nineties version of Jack Kerouac's On The Road. Author Stephen Wright transports readers from the claustrophobia of the suburbs to the freedom of the open road and the pursuit of the American dream--or nightmare--in this remarkable novel that reveals the darkest side of our civilized society. It begins with the story of Wylie Jones, a nice man who walks out of a backyard barbecue and embarks on a postmodern adventure of disturbing proportions. Stealing his neighbor's Ford Galaxy 500, he traverses a country filled with unexpected turmoil--where crackheads lurk in the suburbs, a lesbian couple run a Las Vegas wedding chapel, and a fabulous L.A. dinner party is blown to bits. By turns scathing and hilarious, outrageous and on-target Going Native is the story of one man's odyssey into the heart of darkness at the center of contemporary American life.
Amazon.com
So many hyperbolic statements have been made about this novel--from Don DeLillo calling it a "slasher classic," to The Village Voice calling it a "mescaline Slurpee," to The New Yorker comparing it to Orson Welles's "deliciously sleazy" Touch of Evil--that it can be hard to sort out the truth from the hype. The bottom line is that this is a postmodern road novel about mass media, with multiple allusions to horror movies. As the rave review in the premiere horror critique rag, Necrofile, puts it, Going Native is about the "round-the-clock bombardment of inanity and violence that has so thoroughly invaded mundane existence as to render it cartoon-like." If you care about how horror imagery affects modern culture, and you want to have a great time thinking about it, then read this book.
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Average Customer Review:
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
 A Diabolic Picaresque, A Pilgrim's Progress, A Dance of Death, 2006-05-14
"So I think that under this kind of vast superstructure of civilization is all this other stuff. And I suppose looking at it biologically there is that reptilian brain that the whole cortex sits on top of. It's just there. And it's part of our heritage and its inescapable and the fact that it is inescapable leads to some disturbing conclusions about what it is we're made of. I think that question is what the book's about. In that sense I think that Going Native means having these more primal desires and impulses just rise up and seize hold of you." so says Stephen Wright..
Stephen Wright believes that everyone is capable of murder. He doesn't have any doubt about it. Everybody. He guesses people don't want to be told this. He truly believes this, and as we start this magnificent novel; we learn early on that this is his truth. We are introduced to Wylie, who is unable to digest the killing he has seen, and who moves on; and who appears in every chapter in one form or another- the dark eyes, the gun, the glint, and/or the suggestion. The inverted structure form of storytelling introduces us to the people who are touched by these impulses of violence. The real consequences, it lessens the voyeuristic view, and we learn what really matters from the people intimately involved.
In a dark green '69 Ford Galaxie, Wylie Jones drives across America and into the heart of darkness. We meet Wylie, and his wife Rho, and their children and two friends who come for dinner. The All-American family until Wylie goes missing.
Mr. CD and Latisha , the burned out, doped up couple living from one fix to the next. The hitchhiker and the various and sundry people who pick him up. The dangerous and the deranged. Emory Chace, the motel owner and his crazed family, all of them unhinged just a little, and is that Wylie who has absconded with the daughter? Perry Foyle who resides in a "Fuck House", and videotapes the smut for sale. He sideswiped a dark green Ford as he tried to force his way into his parking place, a BIG mistake. Nikki and Jessie who work in an all -night wedding chapel in Las Vegas. The chapel somehow keeps losing some of their for-sale wedding bands. Amanda and Drake, my favorite couple, who go on a search for truth and reality in Borneo. Amanda, who, above everyone else, has the ability to reach redemption and to understand the truth. And then to the Babylon Gardens, the nursery to the stars, and to the woman who owns the business and the man who lives with her.
Finally, to the last scene, where we really don't see anything. It is all in our head. It is all dialogue, no action and simple prose. It is all our impression, and really isn't that what the road to life is,BK?
Stephen Wright is a magician with his pen. As he says "I think, when your sense of self becomes more and more fragile and more and more tenuated and there's less control then. What lies in the wake is a life of just sheer impulse and living for the moment, etcetera. This is where a lot of people going up to prison live. That's why they have problems. They don't know how to channel all this or even how to successfully repress it. This is what learning to be civilized is all about, learning how to deal with your anger, your rage that everyone has." And Stephen Wright has the right idea, we are all but a moment away from our next impulse. Scares the Hell out of you, doesn't it?
Highly, Highly recommended. Terrific book. prisrob 5-13-06
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
Brilliant., 2005-01-24
I read this novel when it came out, and have waited
impatiently ever since for a follow-up. Occasionally I
come to Amazon.com and check in to see if
S. Wright has anything on the horizon, but so far,
no go.
I remember starting this book, and I felt as every word,
every scene was lighted by kleiglights. If you are a true
reader, you will love this book. If not, buy a Robert Ludlum
or a John Grisham.
(I do want to disagree with one reader, who felt that
Annie Proulx's "Accordian Dreams" didn't add up to a
real novel. Novels, like houses or churches or human
beings, can be shaped in innumerable designs. Do
yourself a favor. Read both).
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
The Real Thing, 2004-03-25
I have been getting very disillusioned with most of the male writers in this country whose perspective is invariably that of an adolescent male (no matter what their ages) but this writer is the real thing. He gets deeply into his characters in the most economical way and he knows them inside out. I haven't even finished this novel but already feel moved to write a testimonial. This book is about everything American. Its structure is a road book-cum-linked stories. Each one is a perfect, complete cameo of whatever life he is depicting, whether the loner hitchhiker harassed by cops on a freeway who is picked up by a trucker, his cab papered in glossy pictures of naked pin ups, or a debauch at a sex ranch whose reigning queen decides to film a sexually-oriented version of Christ's passion (her summation of the effort: "Blasphemy, I don't know, should be more droll") or a suburban couple entertaining another suburban couple or a couple spinning in a world conjured by crack cocaine, Wright is pitch perfect on details, on dialogue, on feelings, moods, atmosphere. This is a GREAT writer. He does what everybody is doing and yet he notches it up to the highest level. I don't understand why he isn't justly celebrated. In a hundred years when people want to feel what it was like to be alive in our time, this is the writer they will go to.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
A Work of Genius, 2003-11-14
This experimental novel crackles and sizzles with intelligence and sardonic wit. As others here have pointed out, each chapter is a self-contained or modular unit, a complete short story. The shadowy figure of Wylie aka Tom Hanna flickers in and out of these chapters. You're never sure what lies or mayhem will follow. The prose style is hallucinatory. As someone else said, it torques up reality to an intensity that renders even the most banal act in poetic terms, while the sporadic violence is mind-numbingly intense and intimate. I can't understand why this book is currently out of print. It is a towering literary achievement, one of the greatest novels of modern times. If you're ready for a blizzard of dizzying language, a breakneck narrative drive and the intricacies of a kaliedoscopic novelistic form, then you too will love this book.
2 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
 Going Nowhere, 2002-11-17
I can't believe the laudatory reviews this novel as received. Extremely long-winded with no discernible plot, direction or characterization. This is one of those novels that doesn't make any sense at all but receives positive reviews because people think "well, I didn't understand it, so it must be good." Sorry, I don't give any writer that much credit. Don't waste your time or money on this one.
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