In another country or another era, Dennis Coopers books would be circulated in secret, explosive samizdat editions that friends and fans would pass around and savor like forbidden absinthe. --New York Times Book Review His work belongs to that of Poe, the Marquis de Sade, Charles Baudelaire, and Georges Bataille, other writers who argued with mortality. -- San Francisco Chronicle Theres a stainless steel sheen to Coopers sentences that is as admirable as anything this side of Didion. -- Salon From the internationally acclaimed author of Ugly Man and one of the last literary outlaws in mainstream American fiction (Bret Easton Ellis) comes a survey of his cultural criticism. From interviews with celebrities such as Leonard DiCaprio and Keanu Reeves; to obituaries for Kurt Cobain and River Phoenix; to writings on social issues--including the touchstone piece AIDS: Words from the front; Smothered in Hugs spans three decades of journalism from Dennis Cooper.