Country: USA
Genre: Noir
Pages: 193
You know that there's no way out once you take your first hit of that glass pipe. Once you do, you know that your life is officially over. Save yourself, if you decide you want to suck on that glass crack pipe- put a bullet in your fucking headf the second your burn your lips on that scorching glass dick, and save yourself from the misery, the agony, the embarrassment, the heartache, just the pure torture of becoming just another junkie (we've got too many in the fucking city of Detroit anyway) (p.14)
Intense, isn't it? That's just the beginning anyway. The first paragraph of Leonard Fritz's thin but powerful first novel IN NINE KINDS OF PAIN. I have heard and read many things about the city of Detroit and its fall from grace over the years, but nothing as evocative as this. Leonard Fritz is an angry, angry man and yet he has love for the city of Detroit. The kind of love you have for a member of your family that keeps fucking up, every chance he gets to take control of his/her life. IN NINE KINDS OF PAIN is a picture perfect example of a novel where a city (or a place) is the main character and the protagonist serves as your unofficial tour guide. I have read IN NINE KINDS OF PAIN in two or three passionate sittings where I literally couldn't stop myself from reading. It's one of those "just one more page" case. Where you keep telling yourself that mantra and when you finally stop yourself, you're far past your set bedtime.
The plot of IN NINE KINDS OF PAIN can be resumed in three words "Baby's Bad Week", but the beauty of it is that she's having a bad week in Detroit of all the places, a city filled with desperate individuals. A place where it's extremely dangerous to be beautiful and even moreso to sell your body. Baby's a prostitute and IN IN NINE KINDS OF PAIN is a guided tour to the worst week of her life, where she will cross path with mobster Ron Frady, who's after her shady boyfriend Dante, Dallas Sharper, a policeman passed the point of no return in a severe depression and father Costa, who's struggling with his addictive personality. Baby's a survivor and a fundamentally good person, but Detroit is no place to be for her.
IN NINE KINDS OF PAIN reads a bit like an explosion, a creative burst. There are many characters and not many pages and the chapters are sometimes interrupted by two or three pages of a graphic novel. Some might find that it lacks focus, but I loved it. There is no stereotyping or caricature to it. My favorite character was Dallas Sharper, who's depression is getting out of hand, due to a bad wedding. Here's passage that shows what I mean.
Dallas has not given up on Liz yet. He knows Liz is a woman of spontaneity, who follows her passion, of which Dallas knows he has none. (p.88)
Baby's lost in the mean street of Detroit and every single one of those lunatics seems to fall in love with her, because she "looks like Halle Berry". IN NINE KINDS OF PAIN is a jolt of electricity, it's dark and filled with sick and depraved people and yet it's beaming with life. Leonard Fritz is a passionate artist and his prose is wild and effervescent. While I am very enthusiast about IN NINE KINDS OF PAIN (I'm sure you can tell by now) and that I'm awaiting the next Leonard Fritz novel like a kid in front of a Christmas Tree in December, I hope the next one won't follow the same pattern because it could turn into something gimmicky over time. But as a standalone multidisciplinary work of art, it's a beautiful surge of creativity. If you didn't know Leonard Fritz, hopefully you read IN NINE KINDS OF PAIN and let him charm you. Amazing novel.