With each new novel, Dennis Cooper's reputation as
the most daring and distinctive writer working in
America today is cemented. To anyone familiar with this
writer -- whom the New York Times calls "taut,
chillingly ironic," the Washington Post Book World terms
"brilliant," and the Village Voice deems capable of
"religious intensity" -- it will come as no surprise
that before he achieved success as a novelist, Dennis
Cooper was best known as a poet. The Dream Police
collects the best poems from five of his previous books
and also includes a selection of new works. From his
darkly erotic early verse to the more refined, post-punk
poems that led critics to dub him "the spokesman for the
Blank Generation," to his later experimental pieces,
Cooper's evolving study of the distances and dangers in
romantic relationships has made him a singular voice in
American poetry. The Dream Police is a vital addition to
Dennis Cooper's riveting and disarming vision of life,
love, obsession, and the depths of human need. "There
can be no doubt about the power and originality of
Cooper's writing." -- The Washington Post Book World;
"Cooper's vision is at first intense, nearly minimal,
then suddenly it ascends into vision." -- Kathy Acker;
"In another country or another era, Dennis Cooper's
books would be circulated in secret, explosive samizdat
editions that friends and fans would pass around and
savor like forbidden absinthe. He would risk his life
for them, or maybe he'd just be sent to a mental asylum,
like the Marquis de Sade, to whom he has been compared.
This is high risk literature. It takes enormous courage
for a writer to explore, as Mr. Cooper does, the extreme
boundaries of human behavior and amorality, right to the
abyss where desire and lust topple to death." --
Catherine Texier, The New York Times Book Review.
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