In this minimalist novel, Ram, Gummo, and Bettie are on a mission to celebrate a posthumous birthday. They have six hours to incite a riot, exact revenge, vandalize a museum, and torch a tree. But one disaster begets another, and their incompetence, the police, and even nature threatens to disrupt their plans. Can they wreak havoc without serious injury or arrest and accomplish their task before sunrise? Or will their incompetence, or the elements, doom them? Equal parts Hunter S. Thompson, Groucho Marx, and Ernest Hemingway, Bastard Virtues is a funny, surreal, and violent roller coaster ride-one you shouldn’t miss. Bastard Virtues is a novel that’s chaotic and wild, but in all the right ways. The book starts in the middle of Ram and Gummo trying to incite their riot, and quickly escalates from there onwards. As the novel continues, things swiftly begin to spiral. When things don’t go according to plan, Ram and Gummo are impulsive and brash; often leading them to bad, drug-induced decisions that put them at risk. But that is half the fun of Bastard Virtues. There’s a really enjoyable unpredictability about the book that sets it apart. - Cultured Vultures
