Ron Currie, Jr.

www.roncurriejr.net
A San Francisco Chronicle Notable Book of 2007
A Richmond Times-Dispatch Top-Five Book of 2007
Winner of the 2008 New York Public Library Young Lions Award
Shortlisted for the 2008 Crawford Award
CRITICAL PRAISE FOR GOD IS DEAD:
“Impressive…riveting…reverberates through the pages and into our difficult present reality.” –Los Angeles Times
“Oddly captivating.” –Entertainment Weekly
“Abrasively funny…inventive and absorbing…Kurt Vonnegut laced with Louis-Ferdinand Celine.” –Kirkus Reviews (starred)
"Few authors would dare to depict the near rape and death of God amid a horrendous genocidal war, and fewer still could make it so bladder-threateningly hilarious. Although there’s genuine sadness throughout, God Is Dead is very likely the most entertaining book ever written on the subject of deicide." -The Believer
"Juvenile and offensive." -USA Today
"...cavalierly ambitious...Currie proves miraculously able to raise the specter of these abject breakdowns in human civilization and then people that image with talking dogs, text message-happy teenagers, and end-of-day shenanigans. Like Kurt Vonnegut, he seems to understand that in the face of grim and grave concerns, humor is a more powerful salt than screed. Still, I can promise you this: you won't be laughing your way to the end of this inspired debut." -John Freeman, Atlanta Journal-Constitution
"As smart and addictive as any debut novel you're likely to pick up this year...comparisons to a young Vonnegut might well be founded." -The List (Edinburgh)
"Wickedly funny...a provocative book that is hard to forget." -Times (London)
"Currie takes his place among the ranks of George Orwell, Aldous Huxley and Arthur C. Clarke." -Bookpage
"God Is Dead is a heady cocktail of ideas. Broad-stroke symbolism and delicately shaded realism are swished together with admirable aplomb. Currie's skills are equal to just about any technical challenge, whether it be the Hitchcockian slow burn of 'My Brother, The Murderer' or a post-apocalyptic suicide orgy in 'Indian Summer'. Satirists often do a feeble job on character: Currie is determined to avoid that weakness." -Guardian (London)
"From its stark title to its startling final page, Currie's novel packs one tight punch of fresh ideas in prose so smart it smarts. As a satirist, Currie has only bad news to impart, but as a devotee of Kurt Vonnegut, he does it with such humour, you'll barely notice." -Telegraph (UK)
“Brilliant…touching…at a time when the Richard Dawkinses and Daniel Dennetts of the world are howling about the problems of theism, God is Dead comes as a fresh gust of wind.” –St. Petersburg Times
“Wonderful…as a freshman effort, God is Dead is almost miraculous.” --Bookslut
Native of Waterville, Maine, U.S. A long-time restaurant slop-slinger, I recently performed a really, really improbable phone-booth transformation into full-time fiction writer. First book, "God is Dead", is out in hardcover from Viking. Working on a second book, and it's coming along nicely; thanks very much for asking.
Am aware of and working on my addiction to hyphens. It gives the copyeditors fits. Fits, I tell you.

You can listen to an interview w/ me and a brief excerpt from the book here. Just scroll down until you see my name, then click on the interview link.

Stories of mine (including excerpts from "God is Dead") have popped up in these fine periodicals, most of which are run on shoestring budgets by highly dedicated, highly uncompensated people, periodicals that need and deserve your support, in the form of subscriptions, or donations, or candy-grams: The Cincinnati Review , Glimmer Train , The Sun , The Southeast Review , Harpur Palate , Portland Monthly , Alaska Quarterly Review , Willow Springs , and Night Train.
Also in the anthologies Mother Knows and New Sudden Fiction.
Extra-special bonus: Lucky you! Here is a link which, if you follow it and purchase the reasonably priced and exquisitely produced back issue of Ninth Letter that it leads to, you will have a copy of what was the first chapter from the original manuscript of "God is Dead" which, for aesthetic (rather than quality control) reasons, will not appear in the Viking hardcover. It's like DVD bonus features, except smarter, more interesting, and far less compelling to the average person.