The+Fuck-Up+by++Arthur+Nersesian



Alone on the streets of New York City, Arthur Neresian’s nameless main-character in his young adult novel __//The Fuck-Up//__ finds himself jobless, homeless, disheveled, and hungry. With a fractured skull, broken ribs, swollen eyes, a lacerated arm, and chewed up leg (literally), Neresian’s fuck-up has resorted to a life of foraging, going “from trash pile to trash pile rummaging for cans.” At 21 years of age, his self-perspective has become rather bleak: “I’m nothing. I’m a fucking street bum. I’m eating shit out of the garbage and I crap in doorways…” How is it that someone so young fell flat on his back so quickly?

The fuck-up’s odyssey begins when he decides he no longer wants to pursue and degree in architecture and therefore drops out of college. Now an aspiring writer, the fuck-up works a minimum wage job at a local cinema and lives with his girlfriend. His life starts spiraling downward as he simultaneously loses his job at the cinema and gets dumped and kicked out of the apartment by his girlfriend. As a result the fuck-up now travels to his only friends house and takes up residency upon his couch.

When his friend’s girlfriend forces him to leave, the fuck-up is now officially homeless and jobless. Throughout the novel, on his quest to find a stable living situation, the fuck-up becomes a sort of “hungry dog that’s following you everywhere,” latching onto anyone he can find in order to help pull himself back to his feet. Through dark, comedic twists and turns, the fuck-up fights for survival as he mentally matures and starts to take responsibility for himself. From pretending to be gay in order to secure a job at a gay porno theater, to finally getting published yet finding out that his work gets published under the wrong name, the fuck-up’s life is completely tragic yet darkly amusing. After multiple trips to multiple hospitals, being chased by the police, and forgetting to go to his only friend's funeral, the fuck-up sees that his is a life in which the best he can hope for is contentment, “the closest we can come to a sustained happiness.”

This book is recommended for mature teens that are soon to be entering the real world of college. Also, anyone who has felt that they seem to screw everything up can relate. Anyone trying to make it in the big city, feels as though they're hiding behind lies to try and make a living, or can’t find a job will all enjoy this book. You’re not the only one who’s been there.



Arthur Nersesian, a New Yorker, has lived the[| bohemian] artist life style for many years. His numerous writings reflect the life style of living in the East Village. Many examine lives of homosexuals, writers, and the middle life of New York.

While, The Fuck Up is Nersesian’s first novel he previously was a play write (//The East Village Tetralogy)//. Along with these he has written five other novels and a few poetry books. //The Fuck Up// was originally published by a small publishing company till [|MTV Books] picked it up later on. He has also had his works published in The Village Voice and Time Out.

Aside from being a writer Nersesian has also had his hand at painting. But, as he tells Daniel Robert Epstein of SuicideGirls.com, that he isn't a painter. Painting is the result of Chinese Takeout. One art just leading to another.


 * (click on Nersesian's picture to listen to Nersesian read from //The Fuck-Up)//**

Novel's Play's Poetry
 * //[|The Fuck-Up (1997)]//
 * //[|Manhattan Loverboy (2000)]//
 * //[|Dogrun (2000)]//
 * //[|Suicide Casanova (2002)]//
 * //[|Chinese Takeout (2003)]//
 * //[|Unlubricated (2004)]//
 * [|East Village Tetralogy (1995)]
 * New York Complaints [chapbook] (1993)
 * Tompkins Square & Other Ill-Fated Riots [chapbook] (1990)
 * Tremors and Faultlines: Photopoems of San Francisco


 * [|Chapter 1 excerpt]
 * [|Author's Homepage]
 * [|Interview with FreeWilliamsburgh.com]


 * Teaching Controversial Texts


 * [|Pieces by Stephen Chbosky]
 * [|The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky]
 * [|Fake Liar Cheat by Tod Goldberg]
 * [|Dogrun by Arthur Nersesian]

//Wiki created by David Jagusch and Megan Bowen//