Frisk (novel)

infobox Book |
name = Frisk
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption =
author = Dennis Cooper
cover_artist =
country = United Kingdom
language = English
series =
genre = Novel
publisher = Grove Press
release_date = 1991
media_type = Print Paperback)
pages = 128 pp (paperback edition)
isbn = ISBN 0-8021-3289-9 (paperback edition)
preceded_by =
followed_by =

Frisk is a 1991 novel by Dennis Cooper. In 1995, the book was made into a film of the same name directed by Todd Verow.

Plot summary

Frisk is narrated by Dennis, who had a troubled childhood. In 1969, aged 13, he was regularly allowed to read pornographic magazines and was particularly affected by snuff pornography, even though he later learns that the pictures were faked. He recognises that Henry, now aged 17, was the 13/14–year-old boy portrayed in the pictures.

Dennis is gay and a drug taker and is devastated when his boyfriend Julian leaves him to go off to France. Dennis takes up with Julian’s younger brother Kevin. The boy is psychologically troubled, yet 18-year-old Dennis involves him in drugs and starts a sexual relationship.

In 1989, Julian receives a letter from Dennis describing how he embarked on a sadistic killing spree in Amsterdam. The descriptions in the letter are explicit and the torture and sadism are described in graphic terms. In his second murder, Dennis lures a young boy to his house with a promise of 500 guilders if the boy allows him to lick his anus. After molesting him, Dennis just decides to kill him. Dennis then meets up with two Germans, tells them what he has done, and they join forces to commit a series of random, motiveless murders. One of the serial killer’s latest victims was a pre-pubescent 11-year-old boy. Dennis forces the boy to perform oral sex on him, before injecting him with heroin. They then torture him before mutilating and then murdering him in Dennis’ home, a converted windmill, only two weeks before the letter was written.

Julian travels to Amsterdam with Kevin to find out if the murders in the letters are true or just a cruel fantasy.

ee also

*List of books portraying paedophilia or sexual abuse of minors