Firecrackers (a Realistic Novel)

In conjunction with the Carl Van Vechten Trust, Mondial republishs the late authors long-unprinted novel, Firecrackers: A Realistic Novel. --- In what must be considered a milestone, the book will be published after being out of print for over eighty years; thereby poising to become a lost find for readers and literary scholars alike. First published in 1925, the novel centers around a wide cast of characters whose lives are irrevocably changed by the mysterious Gunnar OGrady in 1920s New York. Though, like most Van Vechten novels, there is more than actually meets the eye. The book uniquely explores the true meaning of happiness and the eternal search for self-identity, through humorous, thoughtful, and often poignant characters. Firecrackers is expected to attract both new and old fans of Van Vechten, along with book enthusiasts around the world. ----- Description: Firecrackers centers around Paul Moody, a man who finds his life utterly tedious and uneventful in New York City. However, that is until he encounters the mysterious, yet exuberant, Gunnar OGrady. Moody tries to uncover the mystery of his young friend, while also desperately seeking his own purpose in the world. Though, little does he know that his life and the lives of those around him are about to be changed forever. Humorous, poignant, and ironic, Firecrackers boldly stands as one of the most definitive portraits on the excesses and recklessness of the Jazz Age. ----- Quotation: Firecrackers is the least known of Carl Van Vechtens novels, probably because it has never been reprinted and all of the others have, some several times. Of the four (out of seven) novels that deal directly with what he called the splendid drunken twenties in New York, Firecrackers was published at the heart of the period and comes closest to depicting the Jazz Age in all its variety. After eighty years, the novel will strike many readers as quaint or mannered or camp (or all three), but Van Vechten subtitled it a re