Rating: 
Summary: Fast and Furious - Or Love & the Personals
Review: Martin Sierra lives in Queens, but he hangs in the East Village where all the troubled souls of the city gather when the sun goes down. (...) This darkly humorous novel tracks Martin and his day-to-day life in the city and frequent calls to try to find a friend for those off hours when he wants to knock back a few, listen to some music, dance, and hopefully find love. Perez's writing style is breezy and punchy. Don't expect long, drawn-out descriptions. This is more like reading with a TV remote control in your hand. Dialogue and boom-boom information on the clubs, bands, and characters-on-the-side are used to advance the story. The "voice" in this novel is fresh, trendy, and today--or yesterday since it focuses on the 90s. The pace does lend a certain charm and immediacy to the story. It's never slow or boring, and that is a good thing. This book would probably appeal more to younger readers than to older readers. Some of the language and sexual descriptions are pretty hardcore. Certainly, I would not pass this on to my mom, but I'm sure many of my students would enjoy this lively story about life in the multi lane highway that defines our culture today.
Rating: 
Summary: Palatable and fun tour de force
Review: Not having a clue as to what to expect going into The Losers' Club, I came away refreshed and happy to have read it. First off, it's a fun read that takes you into the East Village life of Martin and his quest for happiness, acceptance as a writer, and love. It may sound cheesy, but it will surprise you like it did me. Perez writes off the cuff in a 3rd person stream of consciousness form of inveterate spontaneity - which makes for a fun & unpredictable novel approach to the novel(pardon the pun). The Losers' Club comes highly recommended to anyone who enjoys original novels like Ham on Rye, High Fidelity, and Tropic of Cancer. A great book for anyone that can stand back and laugh at the ridiculousness of today's dating scene. Marty looks for chicks via ads in the Village Voice and proceeds to date an intriguing, yet bizarrely eclectic group of young women ranging the gamut from a goth nimpho, a hot bisexual, to a tattoo-laden grunge type. Fun stuff that reads itself - you won't want to put it down. BTW - If you know un poco de espanol, es bueno para este libro. 5 Stars.
Rating:
Summary: All about the "Losers"
Review: One of the more unique novels to come out of the literary underground is Richard Perez's "Losers' Club," a captivating little novel about love, writing, clubs, and New York in the mid-90s. Gritty and edgy, it's also darkly funny (even hilarious). And in a peculiar way, very sweet and romantic.
Martin Sierra is a lonely aspiring writer in a dull, uninspiring job. He's searching for a woman he can talk to, a friend as well as a lover. And he has met that woman -- and she is Nikki, a bisexual gal struggling through the end of a dying lesbian relationship. They hang around the glittering clubs and bars of New York's nightlife, perfectly in sync, except for Nikki's lingering sense of guilt that she shouldn't be growing so close to Marty.
Marty's addiction to the personal ads reaps a pair of promising responses: Lola, full of rage and anger, and with a disturbing personal life; and Amaris, a gothic "creature of the night" with morbid interests (she once let a vampire gal suck her bleeding finger), and who has flings with the students she teaches. Martin's professional and personal life takes several strange twists, leading him to where he should have gone all along.
The New York of "Losers' Club" is a stained semiprecious stone. A superficial glittering mass of bars and clubs, full of people who expect no more from it. The inhabitants are all at least a little loserish, but intriguingly so (say what you will about Amaris, she ain't boring!). Transsexuals, goths and vampires, angry artists, frustrated writers, guys on eighteen-inch-glow-in-the-dark platform shoes, and some people who just like to hang out and watch Andy Warhol flicks. Despite the downbeat title, this is a genuinely funny, witty book (the most hilarious part is the collection of ad replies that poor Marty wades through -- some stupid, some discouraging, and some that are just creepy).
The newly restored edition is radically different from the original, however -- large chunks have been put back into the narrative, which takes away the stripped-down feel. But it gives it better flow and more insight into the characters, and in the end it's worth sacrificing the "minimalist" style. There's also some extras at the back: a book discussion club guide ("In what ways might the main character be perceived as a 'loser'?"), some related writings, and an intelligent interview with Perez sprinkled with literary references.
Perez's writing and study of his characters is reminiscent of 80s writers like Jay McInerney (except sprinkled with some very nice poetry). Maybe Dave Sedaris on acid. But he's not so busy appealing to readers' sense of cool that he forgets to keep them emotionally involved. Flashbacks reveal Marty's past with his mentally-ill, abusive mother, whom he harbors a sort of sadness for. Little flashes of dialogue reveal a lot about the characters' souls, and what kind of people they are. (Like whether they believe in fate, or talk to tombstones)
It's hard not to like Marty. He aspires for something like happiness, and seems unable to reach it. But he is the sort who'll find it eventually. Nikki is a good balance of the realistic and idealistic -- while Marty sees her as all but perfect, we see she has doubts and insecurities too. Lola and Amaris are, in a way, enigmas -- we only see hints of what they're really like, and we learn about them as Marty does.
"The Losers' Club" leaves the reader with a sense of bittersweetness. An unusual and compelling little novel, an unconventional story about love. It will leave you with a smile -- not a grin, but a little smile.
Rating:
Summary: All about the "Losers"
Review: One of the more unique novels to come out of the literary underground is Richard Perez's "Losers' Club," a captivating little novel about love, writing, clubs, and New York in the mid-90s. Gritty and edgy, it's also darkly funny (even hilarious). And in a peculiar way, very sweet and romantic. Martin Sierra is a lonely aspiring writer in a dull, uninspiring job. He's searching for a woman he can talk to, a friend as well as a lover. And he has met that woman -- and she is Nikki, a bisexual gal struggling through the end of a dying lesbian relationship. They hang around the glittering clubs and bars of New York's nightlife, perfectly in sync, except for Nikki's lingering sense of guilt that she shouldn't be growing so close to Marty. Marty's addiction to the personal ads reaps a pair of promising responses: Lola, full of rage and anger, and with a disturbing personal life; and Amaris, a gothic "creature of the night" with morbid interests (she once let a vampire gal suck her bleeding finger), and who has flings with the students she teaches. Martin's professional and personal life takes several strange twists, leading him to where he should have gone all along. The New York of "Losers' Club" is a stained semiprecious stone. A superficial glittering mass of bars and clubs, full of people who expect no more from it. The inhabitants are all at least a little loserish, but intriguingly so (say what you will about Amaris, she ain't boring!). Transsexuals, goths and vampires, angry artists, frustrated writers, guys on eighteen-inch-glow-in-the-dark platform shoes, and some people who just like to hang out and watch Andy Warhol flicks. Despite the downbeat title, this is a genuinely funny, witty book (the most hilarious part is the collection of ad replies that poor Marty wades through -- some stupid, some discouraging, and some that are just creepy). The newly restored edition is radically different from the original, however -- large chunks have been put back into the narrative, which takes away the stripped-down feel. But it gives it better flow and more insight into the characters, and in the end it's worth sacrificing the "minimalist" style. There's also some extras at the back: a book discussion club guide ("In what ways might the main character be perceived as a 'loser'?"), some related writings, and an intelligent interview with Perez sprinkled with literary references. Perez's writing and study of his characters is reminiscent of 80s writers like Jay McInerney (except sprinkled with some very nice poetry). Maybe Dave Sedaris on acid. But he's not so busy appealing to readers' sense of cool that he forgets to keep them emotionally involved. Flashbacks reveal Marty's past with his mentally-ill, abusive mother, whom he harbors a sort of sadness for. Little flashes of dialogue reveal a lot about the characters' souls, and what kind of people they are. (Like whether they believe in fate, or talk to tombstones) It's hard not to like Marty. He aspires for something like happiness, and seems unable to reach it. But he is the sort who'll find it eventually. Nikki is a good balance of the realistic and idealistic -- while Marty sees her as all but perfect, we see she has doubts and insecurities too. Lola and Amaris are, in a way, enigmas -- we only see hints of what they're really like, and we learn about them as Marty does. "The Losers' Club" leaves the reader with a sense of bittersweetness. An unusual and compelling little novel, an unconventional story about love. It will leave you with a smile -- not a grin, but a little smile.
Rating:
Summary: Winning and Losing in Love....or Just a Fun Romp!
Review: One of the reasons we read books is to learn about people and places that exist beyond the fringes of our own experience. By that measure, The Losers' Club certainly delivers, at least for this reader.
The protagonist, Martin Sierra, is an aspiring writer with an undemanding day job who spends his nights out on the streets of New York's East Village. He is looking for love, mainly in the wrong places, and uses the personal ads in the newspaper as his dating strategy. This is how he meets Nikki. To Martin's mild frustration, she's involved in an on-again-off-again lesbian relationship, but they are attracted to each other and manage to sustain a warm-blooded friendship that occasionally veers towards a deeper intimacy but never takes the plunge. The personal ads lead him to other women, and the ensuing relationships allow the author to take us on a tour of the clubs and bars in the Village.
Richard Perez has obviously spent a great deal of time in these places: He describes, in fascinating detail, the décor, the ambiance, the performers and their performances. His narrative creates a montage of observations and descriptions against which to tell his story.
As to the characters, perhaps one should keep in mind that the title of the book is The Losers' Club. The people in Martin's small circle take themselves seriously, and they are quite well drawn. When Martin and his dates are prowling the Village they are accompanied by the author's running commentary, and those are the best parts of the book. He communicates his characters' speech in a very credible style ("Just, I wanna be alone, I think."), evoking the shock tactics of street speak by not holding back on the expletives. Once in a while, Mr. Perez weaves in a little of his character's poetry, which is not grungy or punky at all, but rather a welcome change of pace. And he writes amusingly about waiting by the phone in his studio apartment, with its piles of magazine rejection slips mirroring the mood of his love life. It's all a work in progress. I can't even say why I liked this book as much as I did except to say that I, like most of the characters in this novel, feel pretty much lost (and, in love, quite often "the loser"). It's a energetic book, a very fast read, and I thought it was fun. How often can you say that?
Rating:
Summary: An Edgy tale of love
Review: Outside,
The wind,
Dense as an ocean,
Swells and surges
And rattles
My storm window This Retro-90s romance is set in New York city. It is the story of a writer who meets his dream woman. She becomes his friend and confidant. In the wild game of love there are winners and losers. In this book, the author tries to figure out what love really means. Martin Sierra is in love with his dream woman, Nikki. Unfortunately he is living under a mountain of rejection slips and is a young writer struggling to have his voice heard in a wild whirl of city life. He is also addicted to the personals. Throughout this book you will suddenly find moments of dreams, poems, fantasy. While he briefly touches on erotica, most of the fantasy is in poems or images. "Pulsing with energy, pretending to fly, he vaulted over chasms, jagged crevices-lept
carelessly from exposed boulder to rock. On this day, the sun blazed brightly. Drenched in this light, Martin seemed blessed. That is, till he heard a distant cry-a lonely woman's voice-drifting up, calling him. At which point, abruptly turning, he immediately lost his footing and plunged down a deep dark hollow, violently banging his head on the rocks below. Dark blood splattering across the stones." There are phone calls and conversations and yet there seems to be a searching for the unattainable. Does Martin find love or continue living on the edge? I enjoyed the poetry in this book. ~TheRebeccaReview.com
Rating: 
Summary: Enjoyable and different
Review: Perez's book vividly evokes a time and place--a place I honestly know very little about. Perez's book deals with emotions--love, being lonely, searching, honesty, and dreams--that everyone can touch. The story is comic and sad. The ending is a bit abrupt, but sweet. I liked Nikki and Marty. The other characters were not as well drawn. It was quick and nice little read.
Rating:
Summary: Poignant Commentary on individuals who are lost souls
Review: Richard Perez's first novel, The Losers' Club,is a poignant depiction of the life of an author suffering endlessly from the rejection of publishers, as well as members of the opposite sex. Set in the '90s in East Village New York, Perez's novel is a powerful commentary concerning the constant struggle faced by artists, writers, and musicians.
Constantly spinning their wheels, stumbling from one listless adventure to the next, without very little to show for their efforts.
In order to survive, many have to accept dead end jobs leading nowhere. Martin Sierra, the principal protagonist, confides to his bi-sexual friend, Nikki, that as he is a total masochist, he wanted a life full of perpetual failure and disappointment, and so he chose the art life. Adding to his woes, Martin can't seem to "score" with the opposite sex. He becomes addicted to the personal columns of newspapers, where he meets off- the- wall characters.
A bi-sexual, who seems only to be interested in a platonic relationship, another, who is a schoolteacher and into vampires, and does not think too much of having sexual relations with her students. Then there is the woman who lives at home and is convinced her mother is out to kill her. Readers are exposed to a good dose of ... characters, living in their own self-chosen, largely re-imagined eras, lost in their own private little time warps.
The decadent bars and clubs scenes of the East Village during the mid '90s are expertly evoked through the eyes and ears of Martin and his female companions.
The result is an engaging jolting observation of lonely individuals who, for the most part, are not so much losers, but lost souls. Perez's gift is that he can clearly write with a great deal of emotion and passion, and perhaps leaving his readers with the question, is The Losers' Club autobiographical?
Rating:
Summary: Portrait of the Artist as a Young Loser
Review: Salt Lake City is worlds away from New York City. Right? You wouldn't expect someone from Springville to know much about the club scene, drag queens, or frustrated artists of the East Village, would you? When would I have ever found myself a magnet for freaks while the girl I've spent my every aching second pining for only thought of me as 'friendship' material? Have you wallowed in unrequited love? Have you ever gone to dance clubs? Have you ever squirmed violently in the orgiastic throng of a concert audience, adding your own pressure to the mass at the stage like so many sperm beating against an egg? The pulse throbbing in you still as you left the building, vibrating you like a bell until shirtless, you fall into the filthy frozen snow bank and writhe until your body bleeds from the scratches? Okay, so maybe not all of this is universal. Suffice it to say, Richard Perez's The Loser's Club rang familiar for me. Even though I've never been to the Village. Even though that stage of life ended for me by age 22, and Perez's protagonist, Martin Sierra, is in his latter twenties. (In the interest of time-I've been told I tend to run on-I'll forego any discussion of whether that's a commentary on my own development or on the immaturity of the urban-pop lifestyle.) Martin is an Export Assistant at Japan World Transport. He hates it, of course, and spends most of his time on the phone or on the photocopier, checking for messages on his personal ad or copying poetry for submission to whichever journal will reject him next. I hope I'm not the only one who's been there-a collection of cold form letters from publishers your only greeting after each day at a meaningless job. The fascination for the personals keeps Martin going day to day. What better way to people-watch than to actually set up a meeting with the watchee? Martin's obsession certainly has a hollowness to it. But it's more than idle curiosity. Once upon a time he fell in love with someone he met through the personals. Nikki. And now? They're best friends. The word is a curse. Perhaps Martin is continually trying to reenact their first meeting. As if getting it right somehow would break the spell and free him and Nikki to move beyond friendship. As for the idea that Martin is searching for his possibly abusive, definitely mysterious missing mother, I don't buy it. Were that the case he'd never have developed more feeling for Nikki than he does for any of the others. These others form quite a menagerie. In the novel two figure prominently. Lola is an art student who lives with her mother and paints absurdly violent images. Amaris has a son and believes in vampires. Martin starts seeing both, and things are progressing in each case, through no urgency of his own. But however insignificantly mundane Martin's life may seem, with its pointless daily carousel of work, alcohol, arranged meetings and clubs, it can still come crashing down. When it does, he finds that the only thing left is something he hadn't even started with. This is actually a formulaic romance. In fact, the climax and resolution are a little too much, the dream triggering them a deus ex machina. Yet the book surprises with some excellent writing. There's no question Perez can tap into the era he's portraying. And the dialogue is natural, entirely credible. Dance clubs, including mosh pits, are very well described. And moments like Martin's searching for a parking spot, asking women sitting in their cars if they're leaving and invariably being told no, are exquisite. The frustrated artist aspect of Martin's personality is underdeveloped. When the mountain of rejection letters is introduced, the description is prosaic-a lost opportunity for Kafkaesque indulgence. But I love the discussion of journals requiring SASEs, the humiliation of providing the vehicle for your own rejection. And I suppose this aspect of Martin's character is little more important than his parking woes, or his inability to skip stones on a pond, or the fact that a club lacks his preferred draft. The point of each is to reflect on his love life. Martin himself is far from the typical romantic lead. He's too much the good-for-nothing-but-the-appreciation-of-irony post-Gen-Xer. I suspect most readers will either find him unendurably dull or succumb to a nostalgic sympathy. But one thing I find remarkable about him is the fact that, like any genuine person, he's not entirely at ease in his context. Perez doesn't portray him as too streetwise, nor too naïve. Instead, Martin has an open mind. He doesn't surprise easily. At the same time, there are drugs he's never heard of, he doesn't know what a 'swatch' is, Amaris's sexual confessions shock him, and despite his sophistication his enjoyment of silly sci-fi movies is not purely ironic. The girls themselves are interesting characters, but hardly dynamic. Lola and Amaris are props, really, and Nikki seldom more real than the Grail. Of course, that's as it should be. That's the point: she isn't tangible. She's a dream. And isn't everyone entitled to have a dream or two when they're young? What I like most about The Loser's Club is the lack of pretension. To me this novel comes off as entirely unassuming. This isn't an overly fraught narrative like academia would relish. Neither does it strain too hard to excite the interest of mainstream young adults. Its perspective (from Martin) is straightforward. Simple and observant, as a disinterested good-for-nothing-but-unremarkable-introspective-poetry guy should be. I found myself enjoying this story despite its weaknesses. Despite the fact that it's not 'important' and that it recreates an era that isn't yet old enough to be cool again. Why? Because at one point I would have identified closely with Martin (except for the weird mother stuff, thank heavens). If the same might be true for you, I'd recommend the book.
Rating:
Summary: The strange nocturnal world of the East Village
Review: The debut novel by Richard Perez tells the story of Martin Sierra, an aspiring writer and would be Don Juan. Set during the mid '90s in New York's East Village, the reader follows Martin as he struggles to get through the daily grind of his dead-end job and as he prowls the bars and nightclubs of the East Village, looking for personal connection. Unfulfilled by his day job at a freight company, he steals time to work on his poetry. One can't help but wonder how he got the job in the first place. Though it's never said directly or indirectly, the reader must assume that he has had this job ever since he graduated from college. His friend and co-worker has to constantly cover for him, as Martin is often late to work. When Martin's not working, he's obsessively calling a dating service and checking to see if any anyone has responded to his ad. Though he hasn't had very much luck, he's ever hopeful. And, why shouldn't he be?-It was through a personal ad that he met his gal-pal, and long-time crush, a hypnotic bisexual woman named Nikki. The funniest parts of the book are the women's unconventional responses to Martin's ad and his misadventures with those he actually dates. The first woman that responds to his ad is Lola, an Uruguayan-American, an art student/painter with large, dark, penetrating eyes. The second woman is named Amaris, a goth Amerasian and part time college teacher who's comically obsessed with vampires. Both are highly unusual women, each with qualities that Martin finds strangely compelling. As interesting as these two very different women are, I couldn't help but wonder why Martin hadn't become more than just friends with his gal-pal, or amiga, Nikki. In the course of his dates, and through dialogue with these characters, Martin's background is revealed. A native New Yorker, Martin was raised by his mother until she disappeared. His mother, it turns out, was also aspiring poet. A few flashbacks reveal how strong an influence she had on him-and how deeply he was wounded by her. It's as if he wants to become a successful writer not only for himself, but also for her. Besides his co-worker, Chaz, it becomes sadly apparent that the only friend that Martin has in the world is Nikki. He looks forward to spending time with her, even more than the dates he goes on. His life, especially his dates, only feels real to him after he tells her about them. The author eloquently captures the obsessive and lonely nature of an aspiring writer searching for both success in art and love. He doesn't go overboard in descriptions, leaving some things to the reader's imagination. A Generation X version of Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man or Tropic of Cancer. A must read to all who aspire to be an artist and a loving tribute to the strange nocturnal world of the East Village. © 2003 by Zelmer Wilson III for The Phoenician Review
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