The First Law of Motion
A Novel
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
Living in Philadelphia, a young woman tries to outrun her regrets and the reoccurring approach of dawn with nothing but controlled substances, unfulfilling sex and sarcasm to sustain her anti-quest. Unable to find solace in her best friend Jason, her partner in crime Kat or her pot smoking mother she embarks on a relentless pursuit of distraction which leads her to New York and back, through night clubs, dive bars and dingy apartments until she finds herself hurtling towards a point where there is no up, only down.
Then she notices a man on a train reading a book she loves, and convinced he is her only chance at salvation, sets out on mission to find out who he is. Infatuation becomes obsession and as her grip on reality shakes loose, she sinks to previously unfathomable lows before learning that redemption is never so close as when you hit the bottom.
With dark humor and a biting tone, this compelling story moves along like a train careening down the track, leaving the reader pulling for its perfectly flawed heroine to the very last page.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In the opening scenes of Moorhead's downer debut, an acerbic, unnamed narrator goes on a bender that takes her from a Philadelphia house party to the East Village and Brooklyn and finally to her mother's New Jersey home. Haunted by the memory of her ex-boyfriend, Daniel, the narrator betrays her keen vulnerability via her brusque, sardonic commentary on her activities and the men she encounters at parties and in bars. References to meds and panic attacks hint at deeper reasons for the narrator's indulgence in alcohol and drugs, but these are left unexplored. Similarly murky is the nature of the narrator's relationship with her mother, who sees that her daughter is troubled and yet plies her with pot. Moorhead captures the unhappy recklessness of a wayward 20-something, from booze and drugs to a series of chance encounters with an alluring stranger. If Bukowski were alive and writing from the point of view of a troubled young woman, it'd read like this.