Lowboy is the powerful and moving story of a paranoid schizophrenic teenager who, hospitalized for almost two years, goes off his meds and escapes back to New York City’s subways in an effort to spread his “message” and prevent global warming from destroying life as we have known it. Ali Lateef, a New York City detective whose area of expertise is “Special Category Missing,” is hoping that Will’s mother, “Miss Heller,” sometimes known as Violet, can provide enough information to allow him to find Will in the seven or eight hours before his lack of medication pushes him into violence, but she, too, has her problems. Highly praised for both his imagination and his careful structuring, John Wray is one of the most exciting young novelists in the country today. (On my Favorites List for 2009)
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In this remarkable impressionistic novel, author Kent Meyers focuses not on plot development and not on character analysis (however well developed the characters may be), but on the rippling effects of the death of young Hayley Jo Zimmerman on her community. Meyers does not dwell on Hayley Jo’s fate for its drama or its sadness but for its seeming inevitability, a main theme throughout the novel. Hayley Jo’s death, in turn, illuminates the choices the other residents make in their own lives and highlights the inevitability of their own fates. As Meyers explores his metaphysical themes in earthy, naturalistic detail, Twisted Tree comes alive. Dividing his novel into sixteen sections narrated by fifteen different characters, author Meyers shows their interrelationships with each other and their connections with Hayley Jo, ignoring the whole concept of time as he alternately explores past and present, shows how the diverse characters have known Hayley Jo, and builds the story of her death obliquely. (On my Favorites List for 2009)
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Author and rock journalist Peter Murphy certainly doesn’t do anything by halves, and this novel and the author’s own promotion of it are about as over-the-top as it is possible to get. Murphy has produced a publicity video based on the book (see Notes below), using a gargoyle, the sound of crows (a motif in the book), and the powerful, raspy voice of Blind Willie Johnson, singing “John the Revelator,” a song the R & B singer recorded in 1930. Murphy calls his blog “The Blog of Revelations,” and his MySpace page is “John the Revelator,” filled with information about the book and its reviews. He has been actively campaigning to have his book win the “Not-the-Booker” Prize from the Guardian UK, where it is #6 on the longlist of forty-six books, and he is doing book-signings and interviews everywhere. He is obviously having a ball! The book, an “Irish gothic” novel with dark, religious overtones, is set in rural southeast Ireland, where the author himself grew up.
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When I picked up this book, written by a popular Iranian author, my only expectation was that it would be an interesting view of life in Iran today, and, in particular, the life of a writer trying to avoid the “thought police.” What I never expected was that the book would be so funny! Witty, cleverly constructed, satiric, and full of the absurdities that always underlie great satire, Censoring an Iranian Love Story is a unique metafiction that draws in the reader, sits him down in the company of an immensely talented and very charming author, and completely enthralls him. The author, having reached the “threshold of fifty,” tells us at the outset that he intends to write a love story, one that is “a gateway to light. A story that, although it does not have a happy ending like romantic Hollywood movies, still has an ending that will not make my reader afraid of falling in love. And, of course, a story that cannot be political.” Most importantly, he says, “I want to publish my love story in my homeland.” (High on my Favorites List for 2009)
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Posted in 9c-2009 Reviews, Argentina, Experimental, Humor, Satire, Absurdity, Literary, Mystery, Thriller, Noir, Uruguay on Jan 18th, 2011
This short, literary novel explores themes which academicians have discussed for generations–the relationship between reality and language, the belief that creating a library is akin to creating a life, the idea that books can take on a life of their own, and the obsessive collection of books and reverence for them. Creating an allegory of the literary world and its complications, author Carlos Dominguez tells what appears to be a simple story–part mystery, part satire, and part quest.
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