★ 08/23/2021
Kwak’s acerbic and hilarious hyper-masculine debut picaresque follows the adventures of Ricky Twohatchet, born Richard Powell, a semi-professional wrestler who’s searching for his father. Once a rising star, Ricky watches as his career falls apart after a debilitating neck injury at the age of 25 during a match gone wrong, a fall further cemented by an out-of-context viral video of him screaming “Fuck you, America!” His life in Omaha, Nebr., continues to crumble thanks to a dispute with his pregnant lover over an abortion that leads to an abrupt breakup. Left without much purpose, Ricky decides to search for Jeremiah Twohatchet, the man who courted his mother and then abandoned her before he was born. Kwak manages to enamor the reader with a protagonist whose Reagan-era machismo would likely turn off an audience of the social media age; so much of the hilarity ensues from his brusque skewering of modern millennial culture. (“Fuck QR codes,” he pithily says at one point.) As a prose stylist, Kwak is impeccable. Every sentence is explosive, energetic, confident and hyper-polished, as if meant to be shouted proudly in a stadium of thousands. Readers might be surprised to find, in Ricky Twohatchet, an enduring voice. Agent: Sarah Bowlin, Aevitas Creative Management. (Oct.)
Ricky is a hothead and a self-saboteur supreme, yet his earnestness and humor make him endearing, and Kwak’s unconventional and sharp writing further draws readers in. Go Home, Ricky! explores race, class, and identity in subtle yet fascinating ways and is an extremely promising first novel from a distinct voice.
Debut novelist Gene Kwak’s wrestling-centric satire unspools issues of race and masculinity (toxic and otherwise).”
Hugely engaging and bitingly funny...that rare story that makes you feel, in the end, like you've made a lifelong friend.
Gene Kwak is an enormously talented young writer who has a way of untangling race and masculinity with a lot more humor and originality than any of his contemporaries. Go Home, Ricky! has stayed with me. I can’t forget its rhythm and energy.
author of Pew and Certain American States - Catherine Lacey
Go Home, Ricky! takes on the urgent themes of today— identity, belonging, economic precarity —with an almost throwback commitment to the exhilarations of voice, of language. This pile driver of a novel is original, deeply funny, and moving. Gene Kwak revels in the contradictions and nuances of life, because that’s where wisdom comes from, as well as the best fiction.”
New York Times bestselling author of The Ask and The Fun Parts - Sam Lipsyte
One of the best books of the year...Kwak’s knack for sharp prose and tight plot are on full display throughout the entire book...Everything about Ricky is perfect...Go Home, Ricky! is a must read.”
It takes a writer of extreme talent to handle a narrator so rough-edged, and Kwak is indeed talented. Like Ricky, his prose is deceptive. It will draw you in with its humor, its easy flow, but to craft a voice that feels so true and lived in takes a careful and delicate hand, a writer unafraid to be completely open and exposed.”
Gene Kwak writes with a head-spinning musicality and depth of spirit that cannot be denied. Each sentence sparkles like a gemstone just cracked open, rewarding the attentive ear with ecstatic nuance, vibrant rhythm, a way of seeing and speaking you can come to through no one else but him. Pull out any line from Go Home, Ricky! and you will find immediate evidence of a new classic culled deep from the heart of America, with no holds barred style to spare. In no small terms, Kwak is a must.
author of Alice Knott and Three Hundred Thousand - Blake Butler
Go Home, Ricky! is a rambunctious and constantly surprising novel about wrestling, absent fathers and father figures, and the personas we’ll wear on the way to figuring out who we really are. Kwak’s sly, big-hearted novel resists easy answers, making Ricky’s odyssey all the more satisfying and true.
author of Stephen Florida - Gabe Habash
It's impossible not to root for underdog wrestler Ricky Twohatchet, a scrappy, good-natured bigmouth with very bad luck. Bleak, funny, and bittersweet, Go Home Ricky! is about finding your people and finding your place in the world. Gene Kwak’s playful, adroit prose is as offbeat as it is heartfelt—this is an unforgettable debut.
author of Black Light: Stories, longlisted for the National Book Award - Kimberly King Parsons
Ricky Twohatchet is the kind of narrator you think about long after you've finished reading—brash, messy, flawed, but also deeply lovable, achingly human. Kwak's humor is undeniable, but what makes Go Home, Ricky ! so special is his sensitivity, the care with which he handles his characters, the generosity of his portrayals.
author of Pizza Girl - Jean Kyoung Frazier
Propulsive and poetic, full of quick-hitting monosyllables, it pounds out a drumbeat of pure sound, amid which, if you focus, you can find plentiful deadpan insights into the consummate strangeness of contemporary Middle America.”
Gene Kwak is a force to be reckoned with. I'm astonished by the way he poses questions of masculinity and racial identity with such a deftness that they appear both subtle and urgent at once. I cannot wait for this novel to find its readers.”
author of The Grip of It and False Bingo - Jac Jemc
[An] acerbic and hilarious hyper-masculine debut picaresque... As a prose stylist, Kwak is impeccable. Every sentence is explosive, energetic, confident and hyperpolished, as if meant to be shouted proudly in a stadium of thousands.”
—Publishers Weekly, *starred* review Vanity Fair Go Home, Ricky! takes on the urgent themes of today— identity, belonging, economic precarity —with an almost throwback commitment to the exhilarations of voice, of language. This pile driver of a novel is original, deeply funny, and moving. Gene Kwak revels in the contradictions and nuances of life, because that’s where wisdom comes from, as well as the best fiction.” —Sam Lipsyte , New York Times bestselling author of The Ask and The Fun Parts Chicago Review of Books Electric Literature Go Home, Ricky! is a rambunctious and constantly surprising novel about wrestling, absent fathers and father figures, and the personas we’ll wear on the way to figuring out who we really are. Kwak’s sly, big-hearted novel resists easy answers, making Ricky’s odyssey all the more satisfying and true.” —Gabe Habash , author of Stephen Florida Go Home, Ricky! explores race, class, and identity in subtle yet fascinating ways and is an extremely promising first novel from a distinct voice.”—Booklist Go Home Ricky! is about finding your people and finding your place in the world. Gene Kwak’s playful, adroit prose is as offbeat as it is heartfelt—this is an unforgettable debut.”—Kimberly King Parsons , author of Black Light: Stories, longlisted for the National Book Award Hyphen Magazine Go Home, Ricky ! so special is his sensitivity, the care with which he handles his characters, the generosity of his portrayals.”—Jean Kyoung Frazier , author of Pizza Girl Go Home, Ricky! has stayed with me. I can’t forget its rhythm and energy.” —Catherine Lacey , author of Pew and Certain American States Go Home, Ricky! is a must read.”—Debutiful Go Home, Ricky! and you will find immediate evidence of a new classic culled deep from the heart of America, with no holds barred style to spare. In no small terms, Kwak is a must.” —Blake Butler , author of Alice Knott and Three Hundred Thousand Jac Jemc , author of The Grip of It and False Bingo
