Shuck

By Daniel Allen Cox

SHUCK (noun): the outer covering of a nut or of an ear of corn; the shell of an oyster or clam; something of little value
SHUCK (verb): to peel off (as in clothing)

Shuck is the intense, dazzling diary of Jaeven Marshall, a quasi-homeless hustler who seeks his fame and fortune in New York, where he tries to manage his reputation as the city's porn star du jour when he's not dumpster diving, tweaking, or trying to get published. As his dreams of becoming a literary star grow dim, and when his love affair with a moody painter becomes hopelessly messy, he tries to reconfigure his life by documenting obsessive lists from found trash, and by hustling, which steals little pieces of his body and scatters them all over the city.

Shuck is a remarkable peep show of a novel about what binds artists and prostitutes, and the collateral damage that happens when they try to recover what they have lost.