It deals in revolution and Conceptual Art.

It’s centered in SoHo (Mulberry St.) with drives through the Utah Salt Plains and Marxist Italy. The book is set in 1975 with trips one year forward and many years back. Her love interest is Sandro Valera, heir to an Italian motorcycle legacy. The narrator-protagonist of 'The Flamethrowers' is nicknamed after a place: Reno, where she’s from. When she infiltrates the boy's clubs of art and politics, she demonstrates the impotence of men who prefer talking over walking - or riding, or marching, or kidnapping - as well as how mere appearing can have very real consequences. Not so frankly: John Berger observed that 'men act and women appear,' but Reno, motorcyclist and aspiring land artist, reveals the active dimension of mere 'appearing.' Keenly aware of the male gaze - except where she's subject to it - Reno rides the line between using masquerade to her advantage and being taken advantage by it. Oh, and Kushner is a ferocious, badass writer.įrankly: a kickass novel. You emerge from 'The Flamethrowers,' dazed it's not 1975 doubting you were ever so raw and naive pissed at certain narcissistic older male artists shocked that Italy continues to burn convinced you're still waiting, endlessly waiting, in a cold, cold place.

The flamethrowers