Customer Reviews

DAYS BETWEEN STATIONS

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When I finished this novel I didn't know if I loved it or hated it. I had never had that reaction to a work of literature before. I did know that I could not put it down, and that means a lot to me. I needed to know what happened to Lauren and Michel.

If a book doesn't capture me in the first twenty pages or so I tend not to stick with it- I think writers either have it or they don't. This book pissed me off but also made me track down all his other novels- a singular experience for me. So far I have been equally elated (The sea came in at midnight) and dismayed (Rubicon Beach) by his works, often in the same novel (Arc d'X).

I'm not only discussing "Days Between Stations," here...

Now then- as regards Erickson: his writing is lush, highly rich and poetic. He weaves astute psychological insights in with chaotic and seemingly random hyper-conscious details when describing the inner workings of those who populate his works. The characters and worlds that Erickson crafts veer from heart-wrenching and lovingly-detailed to maddeningly, utterly book-tossingly, non-sensical. Out of nowhere- the most surreal occurences materialize and take over the narrative, often destroying my patience and aggravating the living hell out of me.

Yet there is a pay-off. He weaves fantastic stories and he does it in a way that is wholly his own- no one writes like Erickson. For all his flights of post-modern fancy I can't help but get wrapped up in the intricately-realized, labyrinthine details of the lives in his stories. days Bewteen stations is a great example of this- the chapters on the making of the silent film and the betrayal that finalizes it... I was stunned. For all Erickson's words (and he is wordy as hell) there is something still lurking between the musings and the poetry and the cast of strange, naked souls that inhabit his dystopian visions of the world as it was and will be... I can never put my finger on this pulse of his and that wil always bring me back to him. It really angers me at times- because I think a great deal of the wreckless way he imposes discontinuity and hellish non-sense is, well, kinda empty and pointless. But it makes for a ride like no other.

A caveat- I tend not to go for woefully pomo writers and Erickson is cerainly one of those. I stormed away from "Arc D'X" (despite LOVING the first fifty-odd pages) God-knows how many times before finishing it. Still haven't finished Rubicon Beach. His interviews (there are many online) don't really clarify things but I suspect he wants it that way.

I reccommend him.

Erickson's gift for seamlessly weaving multiple characters and myriad sub-plots, brilliantly unifying the apparent chaos of his worlds, can be breathtaking. In Erickson's visions, there is always a sense of order, of fate that lies beneath the anarchy and madly pulsating landscapes that he creates.

I have begun to accept that, like all great art, I will never have any assurance that my understanding of this book is what the artist actually intended. Perhaps that was his intention all along...

I am hesitant to begin a new book for several days...I need some time to let this one sink in. I find that this reaction is becoming a habit with all Erickson novels that I complete. This book, like "The Sea Came in at Midnight", continues to haunt me.

well that would be true if it had taken me more than a day to read the thing. truth be told i wolfed it in 4 and a half hours, and was palpitating the whole way. i've never read a book that worked so well on so many levels - my heart was with Michel the whole way through, and my head was reeling from the twisted skein of time that swept me along. the scene with michel taking a lifelong train journey was the most powerful descriptions of threatened love and identity i have ever read, and haunts me still. read this book - your life will be better for it. after i'd finished reading it i had to write an essay on it, as i couldn't find a single other essay on steve erickson, so now he's officially the subject of my dissertation, but after i'd finished that i ordered half a dozen copies and distributed them to everyone i knew who needed to read this book. and although i don't know you - this means you too.

The cult of Steve Erickson consists of thousands of unafilliated readers, all eagerly awaiting Erickson's next novel, and wondering if the next one will finally completely batter down the door that exists between our waking consciousness and dream states of dark beauty and erotic potential. Days Between Stations is a fine first novel that will hook those with a predilection towards exploration of the creative subconscious and who are aware of and embrace the shadow that exists in all of us. As with all first novels a seam shows here and there. Unlike most first novels, this read becomes a portal through which the reader passes to advance to the writer's next level of development. It is an initiation into the genre of Erickson. The novel, dreamlike and surrealistic, folds adventure into fictional events that are original and apocalyptic in scope. In Days Between Stations the reader is transported to a world mysteriously overwhelmed by blowing sands, moonlit nights, and surrealistic journeys To places we all visit in our dreams. In a way any attempt to describe a Steve Erickson story misses the point. Try Days Between Stations and you too may realize that somehow you have become a secret unafilliated member of the cult of Steve Erickson.

Like other writers who cross their hard-edged fiction with elements of surrealism and sci-fi, Steve Erickson keeps you guessing about the realities and invites you into a world of motives. The three main characters are living through a world cataclysm, which only heightened my interest in them. Jason, a professional cyclist, moves from race to race, and affair to affair, with no thought towards his wife, who falls in love with an amnesiac stranger, Michel. I know it sounds like a soap opera, but no soap could implore the sensual depth in Erickson's writing, or give the book such a sad and longing ending. A great place to start reading Erickson's work.

Erickson championed cinemagraphic-styled narrative through all of his works but especially in Days Between Stations. As contemporary screenwriters venture to adopt powerful time inversions and thread their viewer's consiousness through the colorful tapestries of the subconcscious, works such as Erickson's should find their way to the top of any required list of literary influence.

Days Between Stations has special potency for screenwriters because of its inclusion of light and film as subject matter in the sub-plot of the story.

I read Arc d'x on a whim and was completely blown away by it. I read it ferociously in a couple of days. I decided it was the best book ever written after I read it. So of course I went back to read more novels by this undiscovered, underappreciated genius (two of his books are out of print - un forgivable). I have to say I was a little disappointed by Rubicon Beach, but I went ahead and read Days Between Stations. At first, like Rubicon Beach, I didn't get engulfed by the book, but when I hit the second half I was entranced. The book sucked me in completely, and when I was done all I could think about was reading more of Erickson's books.

Reading one of Erickson' books is like entering a surreal dreamscape. His prose is lyrical and his vision and sensitivity startling. This is perhaps the most important book to me personally, that I have ever read. I love the way he plays with time to create paralell universes. I love his vision that time is like a river and can meander around but, in the end, reunifies itself. Underscores the old axiom that everything turns out the way it is supposed to.

This magical book by a Los Angeles writer forms a perfect introduction to the American appropriation of Magic Realism. It's definitely not a "futuristic book," but one that saturates Garcia Marquez with the mentality of today's southern California.

The title's intrigue says it best: how do live our lives between events that shape us? Erickson does an amazing job of creating a landscape that we can barely imagine, yet is a perfect tableau for our existence. His language is brilliant in it's constant startling images, and his time-space continuum is downright wacky. This book is worth the time it requires to read it. READ THIS BOOK!