Wasting Talent

Product Description

“…in this almost Grand Guignol style that invokes such surprisingly respected figures as Dennis Cooper, Hubert Selby, Chuck Palahniuk and early Poppy Z. Brite. (After all, if you’re going to write a dark novel about drug addiction, why not make it literally The Darkest Novel Ever Written About Drug Addiction.)”- Chicago Center for Literature & Photography “William S. Burroughs once said, ‘Desperation is the raw material of drastic change. Only those who can leave behind everything they have ever believed in can hope to escape.’ Ryan Leone, in his debut novel Wasting Talent proves this. Leone’s raw style and life experiences create a novel impossible to put down and equally impossible to forget. ” – James Ward KirkHis music could have made Damien Cantwell the star of his generation.But living fast has its consequences, and Damien soon finds himself spiraling into a dark world full of unfettered debauchery and brutal violence.The horrors of drug addiction are painted in sharp, biting prose in this novel about throwing away everything and finding that some things are too precious to lose.

From the Back Cover

“Ryan Leone’s
Wasting Talent stands out as a shining example of survivor literature. Ryan’s prose evokes lost giants like Hubert Selby Jr and Eddie Little. As art, and as inspiration,
Wasting Talent delivers. Ryan Leone is the real deal!”

– Jerry Stahl, bestselling author of Permanent Midnight

“I feel I should write a disclaimer about Ryan Leone’s Wasting Talent, like ‘Don’t try this at home.’ So, I will: Don’t read this at home. Go to a dark place where nobody knows you and read it by candlelight or by the flashing red lights of a police car. You’ll find yourself falling off a cliff, right behind the author of this savagely honest journal that’s both nihilistic and frighteningly, beautifully human. It’s a seamless, masterful blend of substance and style that will scar you — like the best writing does.”

– Jim Uhls, screenwriter of Fight Club

”
Wasting Talent is a book that grabs you by the neck and squeezes, written by a man who is that rarest of things: a capital-W-writer. Now, there’s a lot of people out there with books, but let’s face it: few of them can write. Ryan Leone, I’m pleased to say, can Write. His sentences come at you like bullets, blasts of hard-bitten, hard-won poetry – the kind of poetry that can only be written after risking a few rounds with the devil himself.
Wasting Talent isn’t a drug memoir, it’s way more than that – its a man bearing his soul… and very few writers are brave enough to ever attempt that.”

-Tony O’Neill, author of Sick City

“In the opening pages of his compelling and addictive new novel, Wasting Talent, Ryan Leone writes: “I didn’t even have to say anything–true junkies have that sense.” His needle-sharp prose is a relentless testament to the fact that Leone indeed “has that sense.” Written from the dark underbelly of a society in desperate need of repair, Leone offers readers an authentic, rat’s-eye view of the human condition. Told with a voice that refuses to be ignored, Wasting Talent is a courageous demonstration of a survivor’s crucial talent never going to waste – even in the bottomless human wasteland it so brilliantly depicts.”

– Jonathan Shaw, author of Narcisa

“Like describing your band as “funk with an edge,” there are generally few labels worse than “defies definition.” In the world of writing, it is only the rarest, most special of books that can pull this off.
Wasting Talent by Ryan Leone is such a book. You can’t call it a recovery memoir, and it’s not exactly junkie lit. Crime? Thriller? Experimental? The bottom line: the work exudes enthralling, and the mutherfucker can flat-out write. From the opening bell, you know you are in the presence of greatness. Like his protagonist, Damien Cantwell, you can feel the abundance of talent (there’s so much here that “wasting” a little becomes almost excusable). Leading a band of drug-addle