Cooper, Dennis

(US, 1953– )

Cooper is one of the most controversial of contemporary gay writers, and his work is noted for its disturbing interweavings of sexuality and extreme forms of violence. Frisk (1992) concerns a gay serial killer who finds his victims among the lowest orders of drugged and degenerate youth. Necrophilia and physical mutilation are graphically handled as he pursues his erotic impulses into physical desecration. In Closer (1994) anarchic adolescent sexuality drives the fatally compliant George to a nasty end. Two gay men subject the child in their care to regular abuse in Try (1994). Involvement in pornography has fatal consequences when things go badly wrong during the making of a film. Pornography is a recurrent theme in the stories collected in Wrong (1994).

William Burroughs, Hubert Selby, Jr.  DH