An inspired evocation of the last days of the underground empire, before the fall -- Chris Kraus
Jarett Kobek's druggy, sexy, filthy fictional tour of New York City at the twilight of the 20th century is a nostalgic prequel to his gale-force satire I Hate The Internet, one of last year's best novels ... this wonderful novel shows Kobek can do old-school plot without dialling down the fizzing voltage of his distinctively ranty style -- Anthony Cummins * Metro *
This is New York in the late 80s and early 90s: a city of club kids, drag queens, artists and junkies; the urban laboratory where identities are being reinvented for the new millennium ... a novel that not only dissects with consummate skill the cultural life of fin-de-siecle New York, but finds there the early symptoms of our contemporary malignancy -- James Purdon * Observer *
Intensely readable: the dialogue is snappy, the barrage of opinions bracing, so that 10 years and 400 pages whizz by ... compellingly vivid -- Neville Hawcock * Financial Times *
Aggressively unconventional in form ... winningly camp ... one can't help liking Kobek for writing it; for so defiantly, brattishly, entertainingly, being a not-good novelist. * Guardian *
A festival of wit and, finally, wisdom -- Brian Martin * Spectator *
The Great New York City Novel has been loudly attempted and proclaimed so many times, one is tempted to assume it simply couldn't exist. Yet, with piercing intelligence, vitality, hilarity, and a rather startling sweetness, Jarett Kobek has done it. Staggering. -- Matthew Specktor
New York, like the future, isn't what it used to be - which is why Jarett Kobek lives in California and writes like a dream. His new novel is a marvel of wit, grit, and deep city memory. -- Joshua Cohen
Kobek crafts an electric tale, and the wilds of New York City during this intense time period provide a gritty, undeniably magnetic context. * Booklist *
The Future Won't Be Long arrives with the lightning-strike clarity that usually comes on the dance floor at 4am when the chaos of the world makes beautiful and profound sense ... a novel so evocative of time and place that you'll be pretty certain you were there. -- Ivy Pochoda, author of 'Visitation Street'
Reviews for I Hate the Internet 'This succinct, surprising, infinitely self-knowing book is the Infinite Jest of the Twitter age ... it's vicious. It's a hoot. * The Times *
Furiously enjoyable. * Esquire *