by Luke B. Goebel
Experimental novel enthralls, confuses
I'm working through the stack of books I accumulated at AWP17. First up, this from Luke B. Goebel by way of the publisher FC2, a collective that specializes in non-traditional and experimental narratives.
Here, the stories are not so much linked as they are interconnected through repetition of sometimes nonsensical detail from a single narrative voice. This voice is in the tradition of the Beat novelists—drug-addled, non-linear, stream-of-consciousness. Out of the verbal chaos emerges a story of a lost love, the death of a beloved brother and the failure of literary ambition. In the spirit of the Beats, through it all weaves a song of America, from its rusty trailers and Native American peyote lodges to Manhattan galleries and bars.
A difficult read, but worth the effort.