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Cover of Resentment
Book details

Resentment

by Gary Indiana

Published 1997320 pagesISBN 978-0-3855-1279-4

Gary Indiana's savage comedy of manners opens with a grisly, intimate double murder and quickly fans out through the boulevards and freeways of a twilight world where self-mutilation is an art form and casual sex easily blurs into casual killing: a world where resentment lies at the root of everything. Resentment chronicles a murder trial that might have been dreamed by Lewis Carroll, simultaneously tracking the damaged yet strangely charmed lives of an embittered journalist, a drive-time radio DJ, a stalking victim and her movie star husband, a taxi driver with AIDS, and a burnt-out soap opera actress and her mentally unbalanced son. A multitextured probe of both public spectacle and private catastrophes, Resentment startles us with flashes from an epic judicial battle and its sway over our collective imagination while charting the extreme particularity of human misery.

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Fiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.

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Full BookenDeX details

What the reading experience may hold

A fuller profile for choosing with more confidence—not just another copy of the preview.

Themes to notice

Fiction

Use these as starting points rather than limits; the most memorable books often stretch beyond their catalog labels.

Content notes

Catalog signals suggest warfare and conflict, violence, death, or criminal harm, sexual material. These notes may not be complete; consult a publisher or reader-supplied guide when detailed warnings matter.

These notes are inferred from available catalog information and may not be complete. Check a publisher or reader-supplied guide if you need comprehensive warnings.

Reading experience

Warm tone · Steady pace

A comfortable full-length choice for steady daily reading.

Who it may suit

A good fit if…

Readers who want a thoughtful experience and enjoy noticing the connections beneath a book’s surface story.

At a glance

This book's DNA

A visual estimate based on this edition's categories, description, and length. Select a star to explore the signals.

ToneWarm
LuminousDark

This signal is descriptive, not a rating. It helps compare the kind of reading experience this edition may offer.

No plot details

Spoiler-Free Emotional Arc

A broad estimate of the book’s emotional rhythm, shown without story events or outcomes.

Spoiler-free
12345
PeakRelative emotional intensity
ResentmentGary Indiana
Powerful4.5/5

This visualization is an interpretive estimate based on catalog description, categories, tone, pace, and content signals. It does not describe specific scenes.

Before you choose

A quick reading snapshot

Edition facts and catalog signals to help you decide whether this book fits what you want to read next.

Reading lengthA standard-length read320 pages in this edition
Publication eraModernFirst published or edition dated 1997
Primary categoryFictionExplore similar books below
ISBN-13
978-0-3855-1279-4
Language
English
Edition record
OL7441044M
BookenDeX editorial lens

A more thoughtful way into this book

This guide uses the edition details and category signals above to help you choose deliberately. It does not replace the author's work or a full review.

Good to know

A comfortable full-length choice for steady daily reading.

Begin with its place in Fiction, then notice where the book resists that label.

Try this reading approach

Read for connection, not completion.

Mark one passage that sharpens the book's central concern and one that complicates it. That tension often reveals more than a quick summary.

Three questions to carry with you

  1. What does the central character want, and what do they misunderstand about that desire?
  2. Which detail or relationship changes how you interpret the story?
  3. What feeling or question does the book leave with you after the plot moves on?

Editorial framework by Wesley Bryan, BookenDeX Founder and Editor.