Katerina
by James Frey
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Pub Date Sep 11 2018 | Archive Date Sep 14 2018
Simon & Schuster Canada | Gallery/Scout Press
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Description
A kiss, a touch. A smile and a beating heart. Love and sex and dreams, art and drugs and the madness of youth. Betrayal and heartbreak, regret and pain, the melancholy of age. Katerina, the explosive new novel by America’s most controversial writer, is a sweeping love story alternating between 1992 Paris and Los Angeles in 2018.
At its center are a young writer and a young model on the verge of fame, both reckless, impulsive, addicted, and deeply in love. Twenty-five years later, the writer is rich, famous, and numb, and he wants to drive his car into a tree, when he receives an anonymous message that draws him back to the life, and possibly the love, he abandoned years prior. Written in the same percussive, propulsive, dazzling, breathtaking style as A Million Little Pieces, Katerina echoes and complements that most controversial of memoirs, and plays with the same issues of fiction and reality that created, nearly destroyed, and then recreated James Frey in the American imagination.
Available Editions
| EDITION | Other Format |
| ISBN | 9781982109202 |
| PRICE | CA$24.99 (CAD) |
| PAGES | 320 |
Featured Reviews
Love B, Reviewer
Wow! I've been off from the internet for so long and only this book kept me company. It was a crazy and raw ride. Highly recommend!
Liane A, Educator
Gutwrenchingly gorgeous! I guzzled the rambling prose like an addict seeking satiation. Profoundly touching! Bravo, Frey! Worth the wait!
Reviewer 472824
Thanks to NetGallery for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review
This is my first James Frey, having been put off by all the lies surrounding his Million Tiny Pieces” novel. But after reading this, I will definitely purchase that one.
This novel switches between 1992 Paris and 2017 Los Angeles and is the story of s young man who goes to Paris to write - but also find drugs (lots) booze (lots) and love. I loved his punchy, leave it out there grammatical style. I loved his way with words - his repetitive words. I loved that I felt what he felt - the raw emotions he felt. I just plain loved this book
Ellen F, Reviewer
I read A Million Little Pieces and My Friend Leonard years and years ago and absolutely loved them. I've re-read them many times. Like those, this has the same "fuck grammar and punctuation" thing going on (which I love; keeps me on my toes). It's poetic. But can be challenging if you're not used to that.
To the point: I loved this book. Fucking loved it. Laughing, crying, lowering the book from the view of fellow transit passengers during the filthy sex scenes. Loved it. There are very clear ties to A Million Little Pieces, and Frey walks the dangerous, world-burning line of fiction and reality, and he fucking nails it.
Is the main character literally just James Frey? Probably. Did any of this actually happen? I don't give a single fuck. And that's the point. It's raw, and emotional, and filled with drugs, alcohol and so very much sex. But why the fuck not? Paris in '93 as an alcoholic? People absolutely lived that life.
"[...] people didn't seem to give a fuck what was true or what wasn't. It was all surreal and weird and frightening and thrilling. And it reduced the book to what it was intended to be. A fucking book. Read it as it is. Love it or hate it. Cherish it or throw it in the fucking garbage can. Judge it as a work of art designed to break rules and conventions and traditions, judge it however you please."
And that's exactly what he did. With A Million Little Pieces and again with Katerina. And I think you will get the most out of this book if you've read AMLP first, and most importantly, appreciated it for the art that it is.
10/10 would recommend (to those who didn't sue him for the first book).
Spoiler: There's a bit of swearing.
Robert H, Reviewer
“A free man in Paris… unfettered and alive” – Katerina by James Frey grabs the reader and doesn’t let go, taking us on a whirlwind, deep dive, trip into the world and psyche of a want-to-be artist, someone searching for a place in the world, and discovering love and meaning along the way. As a musician who chose the safe path, this novel placed me right back at a time when making my first adult decisions about the future, and allowed me to vividly live the alternate route and experience wistful nostalgia for an adventure I didn’t take.
Somehow, James Frey has risen above novel and memoir storytelling to put the reader inside the head and heart of the protagonist, Jay. The tale unfolds beautifully, with events of the present triggering detailed recollections of the past, told in the manner of someone living and reliving thoughts
and emotions
and pain
and self doubt
and erudition.
A wonderful accomplishment by the author, time well spent by the reader!
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