Killing Williamsburg

by Bradley Spinelli

Overview

In 1999, the Brooklyn neighborhood of Williamsburg is hit by an epidemic of suicide. The burgeoning hipster enclave rapidly becomes a macabre spectacle, witnessed and deftly described by Benson, a reflexively cynical Gen-Xer and New York transplant. As his friends kill themselves off and the "Bug" spreads to Manhattan, Benson forms a crew to clean up the mess of his adopted city, fighting against hopelessness. A testament to the human spirit, Killing Williamsburg follows in the haunting tradition set by Albert Camus' The Plague and José Saramago's Blindness.

"Spinelli offers sharp and stylish prose." —Publisher's Weekly

Product Details

BN ID:	2940045739047
Publisher:	Bradley Spinelli
Publication date:	02/19/2014
Sold by:	Smashwords
Format:	eBook
File size:	334 KB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Bradley Spinelli has herded cattle, worked on Wall Street, and run away with the circus. He was born in North Dakota and has lived in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, since 1999, when the neighborhood was rife with grit and promise. His play Elusive was presented by the National New Playwrights Network in Denver and given a staged reading at 13th Street Rep (NYC). His play Ifni, set in Morocco, was workshopped in New York, and his one-act Pretty Mouth was produced at the Duplex. Spinelli was a principal actor in the well-received independent film Home (various festivals). He also wrote, directed, and performed in the short film Kind of Blue (Dallas Video Festival). His short fiction has been published by Sparkle Street Press and Le Chat Noir (We Live for Blood and Glory and Drinking with Papa Legba). He competed in Canteen Magazine's first flash fiction write-off versus Dana Goodyear, and has competed at The Moth. One of his novels was a semifinalist for the Faulkner (Pirate's Alley) Competition. Selections from Killing Williamsburg appeared in Sensitive Skin. Spinelli is also the winner of the 2013 Naked Girls Reading Literary Honors, with a forthcoming excerpt in the Ampersand Review. Spinelli is working on a novel set in Bangkok. He lives with his wife in Brooklyn.

Spinelli has recently penned guest posts for Writer's Digest and Frontier Psychiatrist.

Editorial Reviews

It is 1999 in Spinelli’s dark debut novel, and people are killing themselves in alarming numbers in the increasingly hipster-dominated enclave of Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Benson, the book’s 20-something, educated, and underemployed narrator, reacts with his customary detached cynicism to the gruesome trend, dismaying his live-in girlfriend Olive, who copes by starting a suicide hotline. Olive moves back home to San Francisco after people in the couple’s circle begin to commit suicide, leaving Benson behind. He supplements his part-time job lighting parties by working as a “dancing boy” at the events, adding to the darkly carnivalesque vibe. The epidemic spreads into Manhattan, but the authorities and media remain strangely silent as hundreds of thousands die. Benson’s cynicism turns into resilience as the world around him falls apart; he is one of the misfits given the hard work of cleaning up after the dead. Spinelli offers sharp and stylish prose when describing the bizarre suicides, but allows info-dump exposition to interrupt the narrative flow. The life and times of a New York Gen-Xer don’t necessarily hold much interest beyond that demographic, but Benson’s nihilistic views may resonate with readers in their 20s facing an uncertain economic future. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly