John O'Brien

Signed first printing of O'Brien's stunning narrative of self-destruction.

• John O'Brien (American).
• Wichita: Watermark Press, [1990].
• [6], 189 pages.
• Signed by O'Brien on title page.
• Gift inscription to half-title verso.
• In original unclipped ($19.50) dust jacket.
• Bound in original black cloth with silver spine lettering and black endpapers.

The author's first novel and the only one published within his lifetime. Heavily autobiographical and drawing from O'Brien's own experience of screenwriting, alcoholism, and despair. The novel was adapted into a critically acclaimed 1995 film released after O'Brien's death the year before. Though praised as spectacularly dark and unflinching, the adaptation substantially lightened the brutality of the novel, which was in turn a shade more romantic and less devastating than the real life behind it.