Overview

In 2007, during the months before Nick Flynn’s daughter’s birth, his growing outrage and obsession with torture, exacerbated by the Abu Ghraib photographs, led him to Istanbul to meet some of the Iraqi men depicted in those photos. Haunted by a history of addiction, a relationship with his unsteady father, and a longing to connect with his mother who committed suicide, Flynn artfully interweaves in this memoir passages from his childhood, his relationships with women, and his growing obsession—a questioning of terror, torture, and the political crimes we can neither see nor understand in post-9/11 American life. The time bomb of the title becomes an unlikely metaphor and vehicle for exploring the fears and joys of becoming a father. Here is a memoir of profound self-discovery—of being lost and found, of painful family memories and losses, of the need to run from love, and of the ability to embrace it again.

Full Product Details

9780393068160

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Reviews

Reading this book is like experiencing a very skilled surgeon performing an operation on his own insecurities and new found fragile maturity. The written operation may be painful but watching the scars heal on the page is a true delight. -- John Waters, director and author

[A] finely crafted mosaic of edgy beauty, ambushing drama, and unsparing reflections.... Haunted, compassionate, fearful of failing as a parent, Flynn pursues the deeply disturbing subject of torture into unexpected spheres, seeking understanding of our obsession with power, acceptance of suffering, and transcendent resilience.

""A writer of uncommon thoughtful eloquence...If the battered genre of memoir is ever to regain its luster and intention, its rightful heritage of memory and impression, then Flynn is one of its most passionate and skilled advocates."" -- Susanna Sonnenberg - San Francisco Chronicle ""[A] finely crafted mosaic of edgy beauty, ambushing drama, and unsparing reflections…. Haunted, compassionate, fearful of failing as a parent, Flynn pursues the deeply disturbing subject of torture into unexpected spheres, seeking understanding of our obsession with power, acceptance of suffering, and transcendent resilience."" -- Booklist ""The best passages here are simply astonishing...The questions Flynn asks in this disquieting masterpiece are quite simple: How could we, as a people, have allowed this to have happened? And why are we still?"" -- Steve Almond - Los Angeles Times ""Starred Review. Flynn recalls and records in a stunningly beautiful cascade of images.... A striking collection of memories that will mystify, enlighten, trouble and amaze."" -- Kirkus Reviews ""Reading this book is like experiencing a very skilled surgeon performing an operation on his own insecurities and new found fragile maturity. The written operation may be painful but watching the scars heal on the page is a true delight."" -- John Waters, director and author ""A gleaming, brutal, beautiful book. As I read it, I kept thinking of all the people I wanted to give it to."" -- Aimee Bender, author of The Girl in the Flammable Skirt ""Another Nick Flynn book means another marvel. The Ticking is the Bomb is bold and brave and the prose will blow you away, as well his insights on love and being. Behold."" -- Anthony Swofford, author of Exit A

The best passages here are simply astonishing...The questions Flynn asks in this disquieting masterpiece are quite simple: How could we, as a people, have allowed this to have happened? And why are we still? --Steve Almond

Author Information

Nick Flynn is the author of This Is the Night Our House Will Catch Fire and three previous memoirs and six volumes of poetry. A professor on the creative writing faculty at the University of Houston, he lives in Brooklyn, New York.

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