Finalist for the Paterson Fiction Prize 2009! Not since Don DeLillo and George Saunders has a writer caught the humor and irreverent seriousness of our time like Barkan has through his protagonist Paul Berger, a flawed hero whose so-called fate drives him toward enlightenment just as surely as it propels him to destruction. Berger is stunned when he receives an ominous palm reading from a savvy guru at a health retreat in Iowa, of all places. And now it seems the prophecy is coming true. His fiance, who is about to leave him, is shot at a historic reenactment of the Revolutionary War in Concord. One of his brothers, an astronaut, dies on 9/11 in the Pentagon. And his more famous brother, a lawyer and politician, kidnaps him in a media campaign to win an election. But is Paul s life really controlled by fate? Or is the prophecy a lie he has latched onto ever since his band went under, leaving him almost famous yet unknown a teacher at a community college, struggling to keep his job? Blind Speed is a wildly entertaining exploration of intersecting lives in which what happens is never solely by chance or choice. Barkan has built a uniquely American satirical novel, a thoroughly twisted journey of discovery that pops and fires from its first shot in Concord to its last rifle blast, which echoes across the heartland. With global warming, 9/11, government and corporate deceit, and ecoterrorism, the novel dives into epic ideas, capturing America in all its dangerous myths.
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Sweet, bumbling, and besieged by feelings of cosmic doubt, first-time novelist Barkan’s protagonist joins the long line of hapless male protagonists so popular in American fiction and movies. Once a drummer in an almost successful band, he now stands to lose his teaching job at a community college. To make matters worse, Paul is the slacker in a family of vicious overachievers. One brother was killed on 9/11; the other is a famous Harvard-based lawyer now running for Congress. The good news is that Zoe has agreed to marry him, but Paul feels doomed by an alarming palm-reading session. His ensuing misadventures are ludicrous, barbed, and funny, including the worst-ever spoiled wedding and a weird entanglement with a group of fake ecoterrorists. Paul is likable, and Barkan’s satiric comparisons of the 1990s boom time with this misbegotten age have zing. Too bad the plot is so raggedy and Barkan’s approach to environmental matters is so muddled. Still, this is a smart, comedic, and heartfelt attack on hypocrisy and greed that celebrates good guys, however much they flail and flounder. --Donna Seaman
Review
Blind Speed is a crazy adventure of a novel, one that hilariously explores the serious issues of this era and every other: faith, love, ambition and its discontents, the possibility of spiritual regeneration, not to mention sibling rivalry and where to get a drink late at night in Boston. Josh Barkan has written a book that is whip-smart, but whose central allure resides in its oversized heart. ---- Steve Almond, author of (Not that You Asked) and Candyfreak
Part farce, part political satire, part metafiction, Blind Speed is a rich fictional stew. Josh Barkan has written an energetic modern-day picaresque. ---- Tom Perrotta, author of Little Children and The Abstinence Teacher
Blind Speed is a rip-roaring read that will propel you to the next page until you laugh your way across the finish line. Rarely does a novel manage to capture so many facets of the culture at large--Cool prose and piercing insights from a hot new talent. ---- Martin J. Sherwin, Pulitzer Prize winning author of American Prometheus
Part farce, part political satire, part metafiction, Blind Speed is a rich fictional stew. Josh Barkan has written an energetic modern-day picaresque. ---- Tom Perrotta, author of Little Children and The Abstinence Teacher
Blind Speed is a rip-roaring read that will propel you to the next page until you laugh your way across the finish line. Rarely does a novel manage to capture so many facets of the culture at large--Cool prose and piercing insights from a hot new talent. ---- Martin J. Sherwin, Pulitzer Prize winning author of American Prometheus
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More About the Author
Josh Barkan was awarded a literature fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. He has taught writing at Harvard, New York University, and Boston University and is the author of the short-story collection Before Hiroshima. His first novel Blind Speed was named a finalist for the 2009 Paterson Fiction Prize. He spent much of his childhood abroad, living in Kenya, Tanzania, France and India. After attending Yale University, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa, he spent a year teaching in Japan and received his MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop. His writing has appeared in Esquire and as a contributor to The Boston Book Review. He lives in New York City and Mexico City. In 2011-2012 he is the writer-in-residence in Braddock, Pennsylvania, for Into the Furnace.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
OMGIWAB - too bad there was no audience in mind,
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This review is from: Blind Speed: A Novel (Hardcover)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
After this book and Beginner's Greek: A Novel, I'm going have to propose a new genre of literature - the OMGIWAB - or "OMG! I'm Writing A Book" since in both cases it appears that the writer was so enamored with the fact that he's writing a novel that he kind of forgot to tell a compelling story or pay much attention to his characters beyond the flat stereotypes. In the case of Beginner's Greek, you have a lot of telling without showing, a lot of internal monologues, impossible dialogue, stereotypical characters and an amateur writer's fantasy of a real writing life (sleeping with gorgeous editors, giving public readings to a roomful of fawning groupies, respect, etc.)
Blind Speed had all those elements and more. Instead of a cheesy love story on which to hang its hat, it meanders over the thankless life of a protagonist who becomes a stand-in for the writer. He's fat and he feels like a loser and he's sure that his position in academia is going to come crashing down on him at any moment. There's an impossibly hot and patient girlfriend (who marries him) and a couple of really successful brothers. There's also a kidnapping plot toward the end. But what really makes this an OMGIWAB besides the internal monologues and the trite characterizations is the author's insistence on talking to the audience. He wrote one chapter during the Michael Jackson trial. He was thinking of something else when he wrote another chapter. Did you know that he had a novel that he finished as an undergrad that he's never looked at again? Isn't that fascinating? No. I see that he's trying to imitate Kundera, but despite Kundera's weird way of talking to the audience he usually has something to say. All the writer of this thing has to say is "Look at me! I'm writing a novel! Isn't that the coolest thing!" And in a roomful of his best friends, sure. But since there are dozens of novels coming out every month, it's just wearisome for someone looking to read one of those novels for the purposes of entertainment and not the validation of a Creative Writing Masters degree.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Barkan's Promise,
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This review is from: Blind Speed: A Novel (Hardcover)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
Reading the book cover summary, I was intrigued that the novel starts off with the protagonist's fiancee getting shot at a Revolutionary War reenactment. It's difficult to think of something more absurd and the novel repeatedly looks at simulations of real events, like ecoterrorism and tourist traps. Baudrillard would love this novel and someone could do a great essay of the simulacra in Blind Speed.
I was though at the same time initially put off by the comparison to Delilio and Saunders, since such comparisons are too often thrown out there to sell an author that bears little resemblance to either. However, Barkan does owe something to White Noise, Blind Speed makes several great reflections about modern life in the mall food court and elsewhere, much like Delilio. Also the protagonist Paul, reminds me a little of Jack in White Noise. Saunders is at work here as well. I thought of his Civilwarland in Bad Decline. I was initially put off with the author or at least a narrator intruding into the store, ending chapters with random facts, but after awhile I enjoyed his crisis of a chapter not working out or giving two different speeches at Paul's would be astronaut brother's funeral. This is a postmodern novel, which may be a turn off for readers who want some kind of thriller. Paul is an anti-hero, his life repeatedly seems to hit a low point and still manages to get worse. Many things like his relationship with Zoe get some resolution by the end of the novel, though I thought the ending faded too easily. This was one the better novels I've read in the last few months and I look forward to Barkan's future work.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Funny, intimate, dark...,
By
This review is from: Blind Speed: A Novel (Hardcover)
I finished "Blind Speed" a few weeks ago and I am still thinking about it, which is a sure sign of a good novel -- the ability to reverberate with the reader long after it's been put down.
Maybe it's because Paul Berger is such a loser, but a relatable one, an articulate, thoughtful, smart loser who is plagued by insecurity, and a paralyzing mixture of cowardice and laziness. He is surrounded by people who possess at least one characteristic he does not have: his brother Cyrus with his ambition, his girlfriend Zoe, the good looking optimist, the modern Cyrano (my favorite character) with his talent and ease, the Buffalo Man with his wisdom and practicality... I don't think anyone can help but see a little of Paul Berger in themselves because his failings seem so genuine and his fears, honest. The writing itself is very forthright, pared down and light. Barkan does put in author POV snippets at the end of each chapter which at first confused me, but later I started looking forward to them because they were intimate and serious--a nice contrast to the comedic plotline.
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