synopsis:

'frisk' is Dennis Cooper's tale of sex, drugs and dying young among the casualties of the Blank Generation. What is it, exactly, that makes people who they are? Young, disaffected Dennis feels there's only one way to find out - open 'em up and take a look. Whether his gruesomely detailed letters to his friends and ex-lovers are the confessions of another Jeffrey Dahmer or just a particularly nasty brand of pornography is left ambiguous for most of the book - long enough to offer some interesting speculations on the nature of identity and the dark margins of the imagination.

'Frisk' opens with a description of a series of five pictures. They're apparently of a teenage kid who's been strangled and had his ass carved open. (echoes of Cooper's last book, 'Closer'). As a kid, Dennis sees these pictures. The sections that follow detail Dennis' responses to these pictures over the course of 20 years. he develops a concept of getting to understand teenage boys more completely by exploring their bodies. But as much as Dennis thinks it might be neat to really get to know a kid by cutting him open, when he gets specific about it, he seems dissatisfied that any more knowledge would be gained. He develops his ideas as far as he can, and finally performs what hopefully will be an exorcism of his obsession.

on this book:

'Frisk' is generally seen as the gay American Psycho [book]. along with william burroughs and bret easton ellis Dennis Cooper is one of the few writers who is not only transgressive, but has a distinct style of writing that is completely his own, many times switching between first and third person perspective. He is dichotomous - his voice is lyrical and poetic, yet stripped down and succinct, unembellished sentences cutting through to naked meaning. Cooper smears his brain across the page, giving us a glimpse inside, as he explores his fascination with the lines between sex/murder, worship/torture, obsession/indifference. He penetrates the mechanics of human desire and motivation.in 1995 a film based on this book came out.