Digging the Vein

“Digging The Vein will appeal to all Tony O'Neill fans, of which I'm one. It's another pitch dark classic." Irvine Welsh, author of Trainspotting.

Tony O'Neill's debut novel has become a cult classic since it was originally published by Contemporary Press in 2006. Digging the Vein is the tragicomic portrait of a young Englishman who arrives in LA fresh from an abortive career in rock and roll. His world abruptly changes when he submerges himself in the subterranean world of the Hollywood junk scene. Winning acclaim from the likes of Irvine Welsh (Trainspotting), John Giorno (You've Got To Burn To Shine), Dan Fante (Chump Change), James Frey (A Million Little Pieces), and Jerry Stahl (Permanent Midnight), Digging the Vein's unflinching depiction of Los Angeles' underbelly led to a deal with Harper Collins, who went on to publish a sequel (Down and Out on Murder Mile) as well as several other works of O'Neill's fiction and non-fiction.

Beyond the theme of addiction,Tony O'Neill's debut has an obsession honesty and authenticity - a desire for freedom at all costs that pits the narrator irrevocably and disastrously at odds with the world around him. Our hero has big problems: a wife he had known for only two days, no job, no money and a drug habit expanding beyond all limits. As you might expect, there are wild stories of drug deals gone wrong, friendships lost, suffering, casual sex and unexpected violence. And of course there are lonely nights in rotten motels, withdrawal symptoms, methadone clinics and the constant quest for the high. But Digging the Vein is a novel concerned with much more than the nocturnal world of the junkie: to paraphrase one great poet it's the narrators "Lust for Life" that keeps the reader hooked. This is a tale related with a startling lack of romanticism, and this refusal to apologize and condemn propels Digging the Vein down a far murkier path that lies beyond the traditional route signposted 'addiction / redemption.'

Since it was first published in a limited run back in 2006, O'Neill's debut has been long unavailable outside of the collectors market. Vicon Editions is proud to bring you the definitive e-book edition of the novel John Giorno described as, "mining diamonds for the crown of the King of Hell." As well as incorporating material originally left out of the US paperback edition, this all-new edition of Digging the Vein contains a gallery of covers from the book's various incarnations around the world, an introduction by "Million Little Pieces" author James Frey, and a mixed-media essay on Tony O'Neill and Digging the Vein by Dejan Gacond and Kit Brown (both of which originally appeared in the French edition of the novel, "Du Bleu Sur Les Veins").