BOOZE, SEX AND THE ALLURE OF POWER SPELL A DEADLY COMBINATION IN NEW NOVEL

BLOOMINGTON, Indiana _ It's rare that a writer of jarring, revolutionary
form and content leaps onto the scene and shocks the American literary
establishment into widening its horizons. Hunter S. Thompson, Bret
Easton Ellis ... now, to that short list, add the name Garrett Diamond.
With his debut novel, Crashing Out in the Alphabets (available from
1stBooks Library), Mr. Diamond takes the classic tragic hero formulation
and turns it on its head. His hero, Kevin Nelson, is a young man full of
love, desire and ambition who ends up ruined by foolish choices -- a
common enough progression. But there all similarity to other genres
ends. For Nelson is a sick man in a sick city, and his dark, violent and
sometimes hilarious exploits -- and the often bizarre language Diamond
uses to portray them -- will leave readers almost, but not quite, too
shocked to laugh.
Nelson is an animator in New York City, and he's on the way down from
the moment the book begins. When we meet him he's just made the
acquaintance of Lucy Brown, a crack whore whose life consists of drugs
and vicious sex -- two of Nelson's favorite pastimes. They form an
immediate and sin-laden bond, and when she dies from a crack overdose,
he goes into a steep decline. His drunken wanderings (with Lucy's ashes
in tow, wrapped in a plastic baggie) produce some of the more outrageous
situations of an already outrageous novel.
Lucy's death forces Kevin to take stock of his professional situation at
Cartoon City, the animation company where he works. His decision: He'll
take control of the company by any means available -- but especially
murder. From there things slip away rapidly, with Diamond skillfully
drawing the dichotomy between Kevin's increasingly violent power grab
and his newest romantic relationship -- the first of his life that leads
to anything but destruction.
Though Crashing Out in the Alphabets is Diamond's first novel, he is
hardly a newcomer to the arts scene. He has performed his guitar/folk
compositions at various venues around the New York City area, and his
paintings and sculpture have been displayed in both New York and New
Jersey. In addition, his artwork and writings have appeared in Mudfish,
Rutgers University Review, Writers Choice and Story Mania.
Mr. Diamond lives in the Astoria, Queens, section of New York.