The Joy Divisions

"Combining the vision of Pynchon, DeLillo, and David Foster Wallace with his own wry voice, The Joy Divisions by Scott Dimovitz is a smart, funny, maximalist romp through 90s working class Pennsylvania that turns a critical eye not only on the historical and cultural forces that dismantled America's industrial identity but also on the dangerous naivete of religious groupthink, all while delving into the existential questions undergirding human existence. Absorbing everything from Philly's goth-punk scene to Allentown's silk factory union struggle, and then rolling through the pop culture detritus of America-Pink Floyd and Hegel and Faulkner and NAFTA and the Waco siege-The Joy Divisions creates a glittering constellation that smolders with humanity's biggest questions: Who are we? Can we escape the past? What does it mean to live a meaningful life?" - Melissa Reddish, author of The Lives We've Yet to Live

"Scott Dimovitz's The Joy Divisions is wholly, breathtakingly new. Allentown, Pennsylvania becomes a character in this marvelous debut novel about labor, family, faith, art, and desire. Dimovitz shines in his attention to setting-particularly, his stunning ability to connect the history of places to the lives of his characters. The novel raises compelling philosophical questions in a delightfully unique voice and form, with some truly hilarious, incisive jabs about the art world. A postmodern book about postmodernism, The Joy Divisions is deeply intellectually satisfying, evoking James Joyce's Ulysses in its scope and command of perspective. At the heart of this book lies an urgent search for meaning in an unstable time-a profoundly human question, and one on which Dimovitz has great wisdom to offer." - Alyse Knorr, author of Ardor

"What a romp! Scott Dimovitz's prose dances, skitters, plunges, and bounce-trips across the page, luring you close only to slap you upside the head. At once steeped in the Joy of '90s culture (I dare you to catch all the references) and foretelling the Divisions to come, Dimovitz's revelatory novel elevates to the realm of the emblematic a working-class story of a working-class young man in a working-class city, eulogizing a Forgotten America, a Forgotten Age, and a Forgotten Way of Being while steadfastly refusing to posit a simple cause or solution. This is a first-rate story of a '90s Mr. Lonelyhearts and a cast of goth-punkers, capitalists, unionists, and cultists that you can't help but find both alarming and lovable. Where did contemporary America come from and where is it headed? It's all found here, in the unlikely petri dish of Allentown during the ugly after-birth of NAFTA, and in the alternatively philosophical and cinematic prose of Scott Dimovitz." - David Hicks, author of White Plains