The members of a oncepopular rock 'n' roll band make a picaresque odyssey across America, from California to Virginia, into a series of adventures and experiences amidst a vacuous, disposable popular culture of diners, clubs, colleges, and hotels. Original.

Boy Island

Joy, Camden

Literature & Fiction

Quill

Fiction. Short Stories. Collected here are the rich, poignant stories that established Camden Joy's reputation as "one of the country's most original music writers" (Ira Glass, NPR). Some are tales of high adventure in which disappeared songs or bands appear as buried treasure. Some speak of fleeting passions, of love squandered and identities gone missing. Some originally surfaced in the form of polemical tracts, or as ephemera pasted on the streets of New York City. Others existed only as rumors, beyond the reach of any reader. Each, until now, has been lost. "Camden Joy is sort of the Irvine Welsh of American rock, setting music to narrative with a knowingness and grace that elucidates what it means to be a rock star and / or fan more persuasively than any other contemporary novelist"--from the preface by Dennis Cooper.

Lost Joy

Contemporary

TNI Books

Designed by the Rag and Bone Shop and hand-screened by the publisher himself, this box set contains all three Camden Joy novellas published by Highwater Books. Sun-splashed California rockers, Sneering middle-aged punk rockers, and glass-impacted noise-rockers sit snugly side by side in this handsome box suitable for tossing through the window of someone who won't return your calls.

Camden Joy

Comics & Graphic Novels

Graphic Novels

Highwater Books

Camden Joy and Colin B. Morton (half of the cartooning team behind the weekly comic strip Great Pop Things) recreate the supposed final show of the iconoclastic punk-rock band, The Fall, at the New York City rock club Brownies-a shambling mess of a show that ultimately lead to singer Mark E. Smith being kicked out of the U.S. for beating up his girl-friend, the keyboard player. Mixed throughout is a healthy dose of mysticism fueled by the severed head of the great god Pan. Oh yes, and there is a bit of time travel as well. Somewhen, Captain Beefheart's Trout Mask Replica is the number one album of all time.

Palm Tree 13

The apparently true story of the leader of a newly-signed band, who crashes the record company's lucky van (it has already driven several bands to unforeseen breakthroughs). Amidst the wreckage, ghosts and visions visit the band leader. Afterward, his music is never the same--full of prayers and accidents--and his path to fame grows obscured. With an ease that never seems casual, Camden Joy spins an urban legend into a surreal folktale. The author's crisp experimental style pays homage to the succinct, imagistic fables of Juan Rulfo, Denis Johnson, Francisco Hinojosa, and Charles Simic.

Hubcap Diamondstar Halo

Biographies & Memoirs

Arts & Literature

Lost Joy collects the writing that first brought Camden Joy wide attention in the mid-90s, when he wheatpasted his manifestoes” around New York, excoriating the music industry and celebrating unsung geniuses of rock and roll. Joy’s voiceheartfelt, mocking, lyrical, razor-sharpearned comparisons to the likes of Allen Ginsberg, Patti Smith, and Nick Hornby. Rooted in DIY zine culture, his rants prefigure the unfettered public expression of personal views that would explode with the rise of the Internet, and enact in words what Banksy would later achieve in art. Joy’s groundbreaking early fiction, in which his characters often invoke musicians and songs, is also included here. These haunting stories explore the many ways in which we use music to communicate our feelings and make sense of our memories.

United States

Verse Chorus Press

Camden Joy's hero is writing a quickie bio of rock star Liz Phair, but increasingly finds himself recounting his own troubled life. His ex-girlfriend (possibly Brian Jones's illegitimate daughter); Liz Phair (whom he's never met); and a mystery girl in an old photo all start to blur together. Joy's novel is a witty and cogent meditation on celebrity and obsession.

The Last Rock Star Book: Or: Liz Phair, A Rant

Humor & Entertainment

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Joy, Camden. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Joy, Camden

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Joy, Camden. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Boy Island

Lost Joy

Camden Joy

Pan

Palm Tree 13

Hubcap Diamondstar Halo

Lost Joy

The Last Rock Star Book: Or: Liz Phair, A Rant