Lindquist, Mark 1959-

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Lindquist, Mark 1959-

PERSONAL:

Born March 10, 1959, in Seattle, WA; son of Reese Malcolm (a politician) and Margaret Cecile Evans. Education: Attended University of Washington, Seattle, 1977-79; University of Southern California, B.A., 1982.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Tacoma, WA. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Writer and lawyer. Pierce County Special Assault Unit, deputy prosecutor, became the trial team chief of the drug unit, 2004. Worked as a screenwriter for movie studios.

MEMBER:

Writers Guild of America.

WRITINGS:

NOVELS

Sad Movies, Atlantic Monthly Press (New York, NY), 1987.

Carnival Desires, Atlantic Monthly Press (New York, NY), 1990.

Never Mind Nirvana, Villard Books (New York, NY), 2000.

The King of Methlehem, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2007.

Also author of unproduced screenplays. Contributor to periodicals, including New York Times, Seattle Times, Details, and Movieline. Lindquist's novels have been published in seven languages.

SIDELIGHTS:

Mark Lindquist gained widespread recognition with his first novel, Sad Movies. This work concerns a suicidal young screenwriter, Zeke, living a life of considerable decadence in Los Angeles. Zeke's world is one of alcohol, drugs, promiscuity, and little actual work. Despondent, Zeke decides to end his life. A mystic arrives, however, and escorts Zeke and girlfriend Becky to the wilds of the Big Sur coast. There Zeke eventually realizes contentment and returns home and frees his dog from an animal shelter. Charles Coulombe, writing in Dude, hailed Lindquist's book as "witty and acerbic," and John Gabree, in his review for New York's Newsday, deemed Sad Movies "one of the best sketches" about a young man's quest for self-realization since Charles Webb's acclaimed The Graduate.

Lindquist followed Sad Movies with Carnival Desires, which details the self-abusive lives of several film figures in the wake of one member's suicide. Prominent among these characters is Bick, who has vowed greater self-discipline only to succumb to the lure of both a highly profitable writing project and an emotionally unbalanced actress. A reviewer writing in the West CoastReview of Books complained about the novel's unsympathetic characters but conceded that Lindquist produces "creditable prose." Sybil Steinberg, in a review of Carnival Desires for Publishers Weekly, wrote that "Lindquist's hip, lean dialogue and litany full of dutiful debaucheries amuses, along with flashes of behind-the-scenes Hollywood."

In Lindquist's third book, Never Mind Nirvana, Pete Tyler is a former grunge-rock singer suffering from a midlife crisis. In an attempt to solve it, he decides that he should get married. The problem is finding someone to marry. In a Booklist review, Dennis Dodge commented that Never Mind Nirvana "should spark interest among grunge music buffs." Jeff Ayers wrote in Library Journal: "Never Mind Nirvana smells like a hit."

Lindquist's next novel, The King of Methlehem, was called "a grim thriller with an insider's view of a deadly epidemic" by a Kirkus Reviews contributor. The novel concerns the growing abuse of methamphetamine. A "meth" dealer using the pseudonym Howard Schulz, the same name as the founder of Starbucks, wishes that his operation could potentially rival that of the nationwide coffee chain. "Howard's operation is like a grotesque criminal carnival, from his password-stealing A.T.M. to his staff of garbage-combing identity thieves," wrote Nicholas Kulish in the New York Times Book Review. "Like Howard, Lindquist is best sifting through the grit and the gear of the home labs, with the blenders and pancake griddles, drain opener and coffee filters, rock salt and lithium batteries used to elevate garden-variety cold tablets into the powerful, addictive stimulant." The novel is told from three points of view. Detective Wyatt James is out to close down Howard's operation in Tacoma, Washington. Howard himself provides commentary on how he is able to outfox the law. The third narrator is Mike Lawson, a country prosecutor who seeks peace through Eastern philosophies. "The quality writing and flashes of gallows humor raise this above the usual tale of good guys vs. bad guys," wrote a Publishers Weekly contributor.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, April 1, 2000, Dennis Dodge, review of Never Mind Nirvana, p. 1435.

Dude, March 20, 1988, Charles Coulombe, review of Sad Movies.

Kirkus Reviews, April 1, 2007, review of The King of Methlehem.

Library Journal, May 1, 2000, Jeff Ayers, review of Never Mind Nirvana, p. 153.

Newsday, February 21, 1988, John Gabree, review of Sad Movies.

New York Times Book Review, December 13, 1987, Stephen Schiff, review of Sad Movies, p. 12; August 26, 2007, Nicholas Kulish, "Creatures of Habit," review of The King of Methlehem.

Publishers Weekly, Sybil Steinberg, review of Carnival Desires, p. 52; March 12, 2007, review of The King of Methlehem, p. 36.

West Coast Review of Books, number 4, 1990, review of Carnival Desires, p. 30.