SOURCE: Laurence, Alexander. Review of Try, by Dennis Cooper. Review of Contemporary Fiction 14, no. 2 (summer 1994): 222.

In the following review, Laurence offers a positive assessment of Try.

The writer Robert Hardin has noted “Dennis Cooper will be remembered as the most prophetic writer of his time.” These are strong words, and one can keep them in mind when reading Cooper's latest post-punk novel Try. The main character, Ziggy, is the adopted teenage son of two gay fathers with illusions of becoming respectable. Ziggy spends his time putting together a magazine called I Apologize. His two fathers abuse Ziggy sexually and otherwise. For comfort, he turns to his uncle, an overweight man who makes porn films, and to his best friend, Calhoun, who is a junkie. This deceiving little narrative shifts in point of view as it traces the lives of these strange people. Cooper fuses minimalism with new narrative...