L.A. Vie

This book gave me the courage to publish mine. At first pass, the stories seem just a random collection of loose narratives. There's even no promise of an underlying theme that connects each story to the next. It's only later that it becomes apparent that the narratives actually present the infinite strata of the human psyche.

Notable are stories that deal with bestiality, rape, murder. Somehow, in the protagonist's downward spiral into the depraved and the repugnant, these topics become somewhat bearable. Neither arousing nor condoning, these cultural taboos are presented plainly - next step after naturalism.

One Undeniably, Kosinski's voice is very distinct. It has a wry sense to it. Seemingly amoral but actually oozing with empathy.

Anecdote: A writer in the 80s once typed the entire text of this prize-winning book and submitted the "manuscript" with his byline to publishers. He wanted to prove how difficult it was to get published when you're unknown. True enough, almost all of the publishers rejected the re-typed "Steps." This includes the original publisher.