"Wrong: A Critical Biography of Dennis Cooper" by Diarmuid Hester

"Wrong: A Critical Biography of Dennis Cooper is a much-needed study on this author and filmmaker's works and life.  Cooper is very much a verb and still extremely active in writing in various forms and formats.  Diarmuid Hester has an excellent grasp on what makes Cooper a great writer, as well as a thinker, and dwell into each part of his past novels and projects.  Like Raymond Roussel, one has to take Cooper's entire works because, in a sense, it's all part of his world that he constructs very carefully and skillfully. Like Jacques Demy's filmography, one movie leads to another. There is a pathway or string that attaches the entire film works.  The same goes for Dennis Cooper's writing and film projects. The beauty of Dennis's work is that it is very much part of contemporary culture. His collaborations with other artists are always of great interest, and true to the nature of his work. 

Hester also writes about the culture around Cooper, and that is equally fascinating as well.  The Beyond Baroque in Venice California years are explored as well as Gay/Lesbian culture of the 1980s,  90s, and beyond.  My only (very) little disagreement with the author is how he sees Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center becoming unimportant after Dennis leaving his post as Readings Director.  The institution has a long history before and after Dennis. It deserves a full-length biography (or oral-history) of Beyond Baroque.  Benjamin Weissman, who became the Readings Director after Dennis, did a magnificent job of organizing readings for the center and connecting to poets/writers from Europe, New York, and beyond.  Without a doubt, Dennis's importance to Beyond Baroque was essential, but the organization rocks on in its manner and ways to this day. 

"Wrong" is an essential read for anyone interested in Dennis Cooper's work. Still, also on a more significant landscape, it's about literature in the late 20th and 21st-century.  He's one of my all-time favorite writers, as well as a person of great taste.  This book opens up Dennis's world to others who are starting to get their first step into the works of this prominent figure in the arts.