And Every Day Was Overcast

"This illustrated novel about growing up poor near the swamps of South Florida has a lurid vibrancy. Its prose is lit from below, like a vaguely scummy in-ground swimming pool, and the author's photographs--of ranch houses, randy adolescents, alligators, drug paraphernalia, fishing tackle, convenien [...]
Visa längre beskrivning

"This illustrated novel about growing up poor near the swamps of South Florida has a lurid vibrancy. Its prose is lit from below, like a vaguely scummy in-ground swimming pool, and the author's photographs--of ranch houses, randy adolescents, alligators, drug paraphernalia, fishing tackle, convenience stores--are what you might get if you combined William Eggleston's talents with Terry Richardson's. 'My hometown, Loxahatchee, was built over Seminole Indian burial grounds, ' Mr. Kwiatkowski writes. 'In exchange for land we inherited bad conscience. It was in my blood.' His book is full of young people, seen as if from a passing Camaro, having a good time and trying to get out alive."--"New York Times," Holiday Gift Guide, Dwight Garner
"A completely original and clearheaded voice."--Ira Glass, host of "This American Life"
"We finish And Every Day Was Overcast in a delirious state of disassociation, not unlike the kids whose lives it seeks to evoke. This, of course, is why we turn to books--or one reason, anyway--to see the world as we have not before. The shabby suburbs of And Every Day Was Overcast may not be unknown to us, but Kwiatkowski's ruthless excavation give us a new language by which we hear stories that might otherwise go unheard."--"The Los Angeles Times," David Ulin
"Kwiatkowski could have published these photos as an art book - they're astoundingly fresh, almost electrifying--but chose instead to pair them with this short coming-of-age tale. . . It's an overt rejection of the already--blurry lines between the real and the artificial, between reality and fantasyland. . . And Kwiatkowski doesn't disappoint as a Baudelaire of the swamps."--"Orlando Weekly"
"Kwiatkowski's novel succeeds in doing much more than simply conveying the isolated experiences of one idle teenager with a penchant for drugs, pornography and reckless sexual encounters. Through a marriage of images and words, the novel illustrates the result of adolescent malaise against Florida's eerie, subtropical backdrop."--"Fault" Magazine
"With aesthetic conviction comparable to that of Harmony Korine, this alternative novel is sure to have you nostalgic and reaching for the cheapest brand of beer you ever got your teenage hands on."--"Nylon"
"I can count on my fingers the number of great books that seamlessly mix photographs and literary text in a compelling way. Paul Kwiatkowski's "And Every Day is Overcast" not only achieves this rare feat, he does so with an artistry that makes the achievement nearly invisible. . . A landmark in visual storytelling."--Alec Soth
"Paul Kwiatkowski stitches together an ugly-beautiful fabric of volatile America, threaded with gators and bad acid trips, swampy living and early sexual encounters. There's hardly anything more American than this ode to coming of age in South Florida. A tour de force in the form of battered scrapbook memories."--Doug Rickard
Out of South Florida's lush and decaying suburban landscape bloom the delinquent magic and chaotic adolescence of "And Every Day Was Overcast." Paul Kwiatkowski's arresting photographs amplify a novel of profound vision and vulnerability. Drugs, teenage cruelty, wonder, and the screen-flickering worlds of "Predator" and "Married...With Children" shape and warp the narrator's developing sense of self as he navigates adventures and misadventures, from an ill-fated LSD trip on an island of castaway rabbits to the devastating specter of HIV and AIDS. This alchemy of photography and fiction gracefully illuminates the travesties and triumphs of the narrator's quest to forge emotional connections and fulfill his brutal longings for love.
Paul Kwiatkowski is a New York-based writer and photographer. This is his first novel. His work has appeared in numerous outlets, including "Juxtapoz," "Beautiful Decay," "Dazed and Confused," "Fault," "Dust," and "American Suburb X."