And so we continue our Writers Recommend - a series where we ask writers to, well, you know.. recommend things. Like the books that they've enjoyed. To you. Because who doesn't like being recommended new and interesting books, right?! Think of it as a PSA. Only it's more like an LSA -Literary Service Announcement.
Hey, my name is Adam Cosco. I started as a screenwriter and
then became a novelist, mostly because I hated waiting for financing to get my
stories made into movies. Most of my books started as scripts, and they read
like movies. I’m still learning how to make them more novelistic, but I wanted
to take the opportunity in this article to talk about some of my influences and
discuss some books that I really like but haven’t gotten a chance to talk about
anywhere else.
Lunar Park by Bret Easton Ellis
In my reading journey, no book has made me laugh as hard as
this one. What you have to know about this book is that it’s autobiographical,
but in a highly unique way. The book casts its own author as the protagonist,
but this version of Bret Easton Ellis is not a gay man; he is instead
domesticated and living with his wife in the suburbs. There is something so
hilarious about just imagining this scenario.
To me, reading it was like the novelistic equivalent of
seeing Fellini’s 8½ for the first time, that idea that anything was
possible, and that movies and books were a way to be playful and mine your own
life while blurring the truth. It's done in the same way Orson Welles would
embellish his own life to the point where the legend and the lie were
indecipherable.
There are so many pleasures in this book. The writing is
hilarious, as it focuses on Bret, his complicated relationship with his father,
and his even more complicated relationship with his fictional son, who is
troubled in the same way Bret was growing up. But what I really love about it,
as it goes on, is that the book kind of acts as therapy for Bret. We see that
the fictional son Bret invented is a stand-in for his younger self, the one he
fashioned as an edgy writer, the cool guy who was part of the literary Brat
Pack. Ultimately, the book reveals itself to be about an author accepting the
process of growing up and becoming uncool. In that sense, it has a lot of
heart, just buried under a blackened crust.
Parallels in my work: Even though I wrote it well
before reading Lunar Park, the book of mine that is most similar to it
is Perverts. It’s a caustic journey through LA’s underbelly, set
in the summer of 2012 against the backdrop of a raging forest fire. If you like
the style of Bret Easton Ellis, you might like it. Check it out here.
The Song of Kali by Dan Simmons
I have always said that the best horror stories are the ones
that don’t let people off the hook. The Song of Kali by Dan Simmons is
less of a standard story and more of a slow, plodding march toward what seems
like inevitable doom.
The story follows a husband and, later, his wife as they
journey to Calcutta. The lead character, a writer working for a literary
magazine, is sent to write an article about newly discovered poetry by M. Das.
In his search to meet M. Das, he learns of secret societies and the Hindu
goddess Kali, the goddess of death and destruction.
This is probably a good time to address what has become the
elephant in the room regarding this book: in recent years, it has been labeled
as xenophobic at best and racist at worst. This is a perception that was intensified
by the fact that Dan Simmons expressed anti-Muslim views in his later years. I
personally reject that hypothesis regarding the book itself, but I am the first
to admit that I might be wrong, and this book very well may have some racist undertones
in it. I am not one to allow someone's personal politics, especially later in
life, to color their work.
In my defense of it, I liken it to movies like Straw Dogs,
which views the rural English countryside as sinister and backward, or books
and movies like Don't Look Now, which casts Venice, Italy, as sinister
and perverse. The thing is, xenophobia is a word and a feeling for a reason.
Certainly, hatred of any culture should be looked down on, but when it comes to
horror stories, the fear of "otherness" is ingrained into the DNA of
the genre, and mining those fears to create a feeling of dread is totally fair game.
Besides, it would be a great travesty to Dan Simmons to make
his politics his sole legacy. Song of Kali is a masterclass in building
dread. It may be one of the most downer books of all time, but to me, it
belongs in the same category as the great downer movies like Blow Out, The
French Connection, or Don’t Look Now. Nothing rattles an audience
like taking the idea of a "happily ever after" and yanking it out
from under them.
Parallels in my work: I wrote a book called The Heart of a Child which shares the same spiritual DNA as Song of Kali. I admittedly wrote this before I knew about Simmons or his work, but I assume I admire his writing because I am drawn to darker stories that leave no refuge for the reader. The Heart of a Child is loosely based on the McMartin Preschool trial of the '80s and is about a young girl who tells her parents she witnessed her teachers performing Satanic Ritualistic Abuse on some of her fellow classmates. Learn more about it here.
The Dogs of Babel by Carolyn Parkhurst
Unlike the other books I am suggesting, The Dogs of Babel
did have a direct influence on my writing. I first read this as a screenplay
and later as a book, and I was just struck by how unexpectedly moving it was.
It’s about a man whose wife commits suicide, and the only witness to it was his
dog. He then embarks on a journey to teach the dog how to speak because he is
unconvinced that his wife took her own life and suspects there was something
more, perhaps something sinister.
I just love the premise of trying to teach a dog to speak.
In the script, he, I believe, buys floor pads and attempts to teach the dog to
communicate that way. This is funny because at the time this book was written,
that was considered far-fetched. Since then, I have become obsessed with a dog
named Bunny on TikTok who does exactly this, she uses floor buttons to speak
English, and it’s amazing!
I was always struck by the beginning of this book, the idea
of a man who is unable to accept the suicide of someone he loves and goes
searching for answers. After some life experience, knowing people in my own
life who died by suicide, and thinking about my own attempts to join self-help
groups and philosophical societies, I decided to write my own spin on this type
of story.
My version starts out similarly: a man’s girlfriend
unexpectedly kills herself by submerging herself under ice until she drowns.
The man is unable to reconcile with what has happened, and instead of turning
to a dog, he turns to a philosophical group that counts “listening to the dead”
among its core tenets.
I wanted to write something about the siren's lure of belief. I really dislike movies and books that condescend to religion. Most of the world is religious, and if you are going to explore this territory, I feel you have to at least attempt to understand what makes people believe in something beyond the material world. When I wrote The End, I was trying to answer that question for the characters—to understand how grief leads people to need to believe in something. I wanted to make those answers a revelation for the audience as well. So instead of just reading about how a skeptical character becomes a believer, you yourself are lured into the belief system, feeling the magnetic pull of that cult-like atmosphere.
I owe a debt of gratitude to both the novel and the script
of The Dogs of Babel for giving me the jumping-off point to take my
story in a completely different direction. I really love that book, I love
dogs, and I'm a sucker for anything that features animals in an un-Disneyfied
way.
If you are interested in reading my book, The End,
you can find it here: https://adamcosco.com/theend.
Adam Cosco is an award-winning author and filmmaker whose work dives deep into the shadows of the human psyche. A graduate of the prestigious American Film Institute, Adam cut his teeth in Hollywood before turning his focus to novels—crafting stories that blend horror, psychological suspense, and dark satire.
His novels—Little Brother, Say Goodbye to Jonny Hollywood, Lowlands, The Heart
of a Child, and his latest mind-bending thriller The Dream Killer—have
captivated readers with their atmospheric dread and sharp psychological
insight.
Fearless, provocative, and impossible to ignore, Adam Cosco writes the kind of
stories that leave a mark.
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