Torture the Artist

I loved this book. The writing is funny, and it's a good-sized read - not too long, not too short. I especially enjoyed the author's main expose: our popular culture is getting less intelligent every year. Not that this is a sudden revelation; we all know it. But, the author presents the argument in a way we can all relate to (unless you like all the reality TV out there today).

TORTURE THE IMPOSTER I know there are likely just under half a million Donna's in the greater New York area. However, probably none of them loved The Anomalies and not Torture the Artist. It is, I believe, an impossibility. In fact, I appreciate TTA so very much, it is with painstaking depth of content and sincere admiration of the author that I am attempting to write a review worthy of the manuscript. The story is one we all know, but have never heard told. The voice doing the telling is clear and poignant and possibly (probably) feared. The fact that someone would assume my identity (albeit in such a trite and small-time manner) to lay falsehood to works of genius is simply a testament to the reality of the plot. An earnest review is forthcoming.

Torture The Artist is a deeply entertaining and engaging novel that reads like a manifesto without crossing the boundaries of elitism. It is the Surrealist Manifesto for the Internet Generation, as written by Harmony Korine. Goebel manages to create full and fascinating characters and throws them in situations that he neither apologizes for nor takes too lightly. Vincent and Harlan are deeply sympathetic, fully realized characters whose greatest ambitions seem to always be just of reach, be it love, ambition, dreams, etc. This is a novel about a society beaten down and suffocated by corporations bent on eliminating art from entertainment, and the petty, often fruitless, attempts by artists to put the dreaded A word back into the mainstream. The story is well paced and always engaging. And we grow to truly care about these characters whenever the world takes a crap on them-especially Vincent, whose parade, if I may use this dreaded cliché, is constantly being rained on. As a writer, Goebel has matured to shocking heights. His previous outing, The Anomalies, is as well written and in your face, but this novel reads as though it was his third or even fourth book. He took a quantum leap from The Anomalies to Torture the Artist, and I can't wait to read his next book. If you have any sense of longing for the days in which entertainment brightened the mind instead of dimming it, then this book is definitely for you.

With Torture the Artist, Joey Goebel is on his way to the ranks of Chuck Palahniuk, Will Christopher Baer, and the other leaders of contemporary fiction who have their own distinct voice and are not willing to compromise. Torture the Artist moves with such speed and wit that it is easy to finish the book in a single day because you really don't want to stop reading it. Goebel's voice is so witty and powerful that it may just inspire some people to turn off the radio and find some music with substance, and do the same with television and movies. The entire entertainment industry gets a nice, well-deserved punch to the throat in this novel that sends it staggering backwards into the seedy alley that it lurched from. The premise of the novel is very original and is an extreme version of the old question "Is the best art born from pain?" With writers like Joey Goebel making his presence known with his debut, The Anomalies, and besting it with Torture the Artist, the "New Renaissance" of contemporary literature may very well be at hand.