Rachel Kushner
The year is 1975 and Renoâ€”so-called because of the place of her birthâ€”has come to New York intent on turning her fascination with motorcycles and speed into art. Her arrival coincides with an explosion of activity in the art worldâ€”artists have colonized a deserted and industrial SoHo, are staging actions in the East Village, and are blurring the line between life and art. Reno meets a group of dreamers and raconteurs who submit her to a sentimental education of sorts. Ardent, vulnerable, and bold, she begins an affair with an artist named Sandro Valera, the semi-estranged scion of an Italian tire and motorcycle empire. When they visit Sandroâ€™s family home in Italy, Reno falls in with members of the radical movement that overtook Italy in the seventies. Betrayal sends her reeling into a clandestine undertow. ,The Flamethrowers, is an intensely engaging exploration of the mystique of the feminine, the fake, the terrorist. At its center is Kushnerâ€™s brilliantly realized protagonist, a young woman on the verge. Thrilling and fearless, this is a major American novel from a writer of spectacular talent and imagination.
Fiction,Historical,Historical Fiction,Novels,Literary Fiction,Art,New York,Cultural,Italy,Literature,Contemporary,Literature,American
The Flamethrowers