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Bongwater Kindle Edition

4.0 out of 5 stars 26 ratings
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This novel of young slackers in 1990s Portland and New York City is “a swift, exhilarating read [and] a surprisingly sweet-natured love story” (Madison Smartt Bell).
 
Set against the backdrop of the grunge era, and ranging from the Pacific Northwest to a pre-gentrified East Village and Brooklyn,
Bongwater is a novel of the much-misunderstood nineties generation.
 
Following aspiring filmmaker David, his ex-girlfriend Courtney, a stripper named Mary, and other characters, author Michael Hornburg creates, in precise, startlingly original prose, a neo-Beat classic that was the basis for the film starring Luke Wilson and Alicia Witt.
 
“Ridiculously well-written.” —
NME

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Set in coffee-cluttered Portland, Ore., and New York City's East Village, this first novel palpably vies for the honor of generational mouthpiece as it observes a handful of 20-something Americans looking for meaning, or at least for epiphanies?so they can talk about meaning. David, a not particularly committed filmmaker, narrates the Portland segments. He is a romantic, aimless fellow, and his scattershot affections land him in several beds. The New York sections, written in the third person, concern Courtney, David's former girlfriend. Her adventures include a move into an abandoned building, a visit from friend Jennifer and a dangerous party in Brooklyn. Back in Portland, while chasing the same Jennifer and falling in with a stripper named Mary, David remembers Courtney from time to time. But his memories rarely wax romantic: he dwells on the fact that Courtney let his house burn down before she left. In what must be the novel's central scene, David visits his childhood friend Phil, who grows pot in the mountains. On a naked dip in an edenic glen, possible meaning surfaces when Mary the stripper posits that "a man who leaves his natural state lives with darkness forever." The novel has no dramatic conflict but, like its characters, is content to amble stylishly along without much sense of progress or satisfaction.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

Bongwater is a novel that wavers along the solar eclipse of the American Dream, a neo-Beat, grungeoisie love story that has all the authenticity and none of the pretension of its forerunners, a book that will be for the slacker generation of the nineties what Bright Lights, Big City was for the wannabe eighties.

Young, rebellious, and vulnerable, Michael Hornburg's unforgettable characters trace the subtle outlines of a misunderstood generation. Moving from Portland to New York City and back again, and written in precise, startlingly original prose, Bongwater is in the tradition of the Beat classics The Subterraneans and The Dharma Bums.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B005012GSS
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Grove Press (December 1, 2007)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ December 1, 2007
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 4.4 MB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 187 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.0 out of 5 stars 26 ratings

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Michael Hornburg
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Customer reviews

4 out of 5 stars
26 global ratings

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Top reviews from the United States

  • Reviewed in the United States on December 17, 2016
    This is the first best and most intriguing book on Courtney Love and her early psychopathic exploits. It is written as a book of fiction, but I assure you it is truly non-fiction. I should know.
    One person found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on November 8, 2016
    I can easily see this being translated into an entertaining play. I would definitely love to see that. I'm kind of glad I watched the movie before the book.
  • Reviewed in the United States on October 25, 2018
    Bought as a gift.
  • Reviewed in the United States on June 26, 2002
    Not only is this book fun, it's very well written. It flows. I almost read it in one night. The key is, it's very realistic about young people's lives and relationships. The sex, the longing for intimacy, the drugs, the ambling through early adulthood.
    Read it, you won't be disappointed.
    3 people found this helpful
    Report
  • Reviewed in the United States on March 9, 2006
    This book is absolutely horrible. Amazon recomended it to me so I bought it and wasted my money dont buy it it sucks.
    2 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on May 24, 2012
    the entire book seemed like it should have only been one chapter of a longer book. i saw no point or any sort of conclusion to the story.
  • Reviewed in the United States on June 23, 2005
    I thought this book was horrifically bad and pointless when I first read it. Not particularly drug-centric. Not particularly angsty. Not particularly anything.

    Almost a year later, while bored senseless and completely apathetic, I picked it up again simply so I would have something to do. It came as a shock to me how beautifully written and profound it is. Perhaps the feelings expressed aren't quite as apparent as they are in most books of this ilk, they are, however, very much an intrinsic part of the story.

    Its romantic in a way that is honest and realistic. Not in the high-flown over-emoted style that most people write in. The ending, for example, is so tender and sweet that it justifies the rest of the novel.

    It may be titled bongwater but pot had little to do with it. The characters (esp. courtney and david) are so well thought out that I, at least, could easily relate to them.

    Its a great book, but certainly not for everyone. If you're looking for cheap thrills and stoned laughs I suggest you look elsewhere.
    6 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on June 7, 1998
    I am uncomfortable giving any book a number rating, but this form requires it. Is Bongwater a Great Book? No, but it is a good read and is certainly better than any of the novels I have written (zero). I lived in Portland in the 80's and am very familiar with the scene described in the book. I felt like I knew a lot of the characters and the characterizations were not as gonzo as you might want to believe. I actually purchased this book because I knew the author when he was living in Portland in '86 and was afraid the Lisa character might be me. Having read it, I am pretty sure it's not, but it's possible Michael remembers me less fondly than I remember him.
    One person found this helpful
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