Rage Is Back

"Mansbach has clearly had a play date with Michael Chabon and Junot Diaz, and his fresh, witty novel is one that hip readers will relish . . . Laced with zaniness and cultural bling." —Ron Charles, Washington Post   “A rollicking, frenetic and hilarious jaunt through the (literal and figurative) New York City underworld . . . [that] does for graffiti what Michael Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay did for comic books . . . [Rage is Back] mashes up disparate linguistic registers with an effortlessness that brings to mind Junot Diaz’s perennial narrator, Junior . . . Beneath all the weed and spray paint, it’s a warmhearted story about a son searching for his father and for himself, a trip through the past and present of an American art form.” —David Lukas, San Francisco Chronicle   “Mansbach’s wild ride will likely earn cult-classic status — and deservedly so . . . In Dondi, Mansbach has created an unforgettable narrator who combines elements of Holden Caulfield, Oscar Wao, and even a hint of Ignatius J. Reilly.” —Eric Liebetrau, Boston Globe   “Flashing bits of brilliance like a beautifully burned train . . . Mansbach can write with real talent, maybe crazy talent.” —Kevin Baker, The New York Times Book Review   “A hilarious revenge thriller. . . [that reads] something like watching a Quentin Tarantino film or listening to a Wu-Tang Clan album—perhaps simultaneously. This is a great thing. … Rage Is Back has humor and horror and humanity and is altogether fresh.” —Kevin Coval, Chicago Tribune   “Exuberant . . . Mansbach’s paean to graffiti art . . . has a wild-style collage form that also ties in plot points involving a hallucinogenic vision-quest, the so-called ‘mole people’ said to live in the city’s tunnels, and time travel.” —The Wall Street Journal   “A muscular ode to New York City’s 1980s art underground . . . Combines a poet's touch with the wild sparks of a subway train speeding through a graffiti-splashed tunnel.” —Elle Magazine   "Rage Is Back is a funny, macho-but-vulnerable coming-of-age-story. It’s seeped in New York nostalgia and narrated in bright and vulgar prose that succeeds in hinting at no small quantity of swagger and soul. As Dondi says, ‘it’s not easy to talk from your heart and out your ass at the same time.’ Delightfully, Rage Is Back manages to do both." —Daily Beast   “A bracingly funny book [that] rekindles the golden age of graffiti.” —Connie Ogle, Miami Herald   "A cacophonous love letter to the old dirty, pre-gentrified New York." —New York Post   “A fierce and funny thrill ride through the train yards and back streets of the graffiti underground. Mansbach writes with splendid rhythm and intensity.” —San Jose Mercury News   “A wild and enjoyable ride.” —Nicholas Mancusi, Newsday   “A rambunctious ride through graffiti culture, filled with magical moments and outlandish situations . . . Like Tarantino, Mansbach has an ear for hip-hop.” —Charles Ealy, Austin American-Statesman     “It’s the great American graffiti novel. The golden era of New York hip-hop and graffiti lives—on the shelves of bookstores.” —Brooklyn Paper   “Two years after a joke propelled him to the bestseller list, the Berkeley author