Random Acts of Senseless Violence

Random Acts of Senseless Violence (1993) is narrated entirely through the diary of Lola Hart, a twelve-year-old girl from a comfortable Manhattan family whose circumstances deteriorate rapidly as New York collapses around her. Over the course of the novel Lola's family loses their apartment, moves to the volatile Lower East Side, and Lola herself undergoes a complete transformation that Womack renders through a gradual shift in Lola's prose style, from polished middle-class diction to the street vernacular of her new neighborhood. The linguistic transformation is central to the novel's achievement and is deeply unsettling to watch. Often cited as Womack's finest work. The British first edition is the true hardcover first.

Inscribed copy. Signed and inscribed: "For Mika / Another one of these — no one / can ever have / enough. / Best, / Jack W." An email from Womack to the inscribee is also laid in.

Hardcover. First Edition, First Printing. Octavo, cloth boards with gilt lettering on spine. London: HarperCollins, 1993. ISBN: 0246138505. #10428.
Fine in fine dust jacket.