The Petting Zoo: A Novel

About this book

A moving vividly rendered novel from the late author of The Basketball Diaries. When poet musician and diarist Jim Carroll died in September 2009 he was putting the finishing touches on a potent work of fiction. The Petting Zoo tells the story of Billy Wolfram an enigmatic thirty- eight-year-old artist who has become a hot star in the late-1980s New York art scene. As the novel opens Billy after viewing a show of Velzquez paintings is so humbled and awed by their spiritual power that he suffers an emotional breakdown and withdraws to his Chelsea loft. In seclusion Billy searches for the divine spark in his own work and life. Carrolls novel moves back and forth in time to present emblematic moments from Billys life (his Irish Catholic upbringing his teenage escapades his evolution as an artist and meteoric rise to fame) and sharply etched portraits of the characters who mattered most to him including his childhood friend Denny MacAbee now a famous rock musician; his mentor the unforgettable art dealer Max Bernbaum; and one extraordinary black bird. Marked by Carrolls sharp wit hallucinatory imagery and street-smart style The Petting Zoo is a frank haunting examination of one artists personal and professional struggles.