The absurdity of David Lynch and the zaniness of John Kennedy Toole-- Library Journal (starred review)
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Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
Taxi driver Rick Harsch's impressive first novel calls to mind the writings of William Gaddis, with its riotous characters and switchblade-sharp humor. Reflecting upon the hidden meaning of portents (particularly those relating to pigeons) is the forte of the main character, Spleen, slacker twin brother of a workaholic. But reflecting on the run becomes his survival tactic when he and The Sneering Brunette are in the wrong place at the wrong time and a contract is taken out on Spleen's life. In the cynical language of the detective novel, Harsch packs each sentence with thought-teasing, hilarious considerations of tough street life in the big city of LaCrosse, Wisconsin.
From Library Journal
Mixing the absurdity of David Lynch and the zaniness of John Kennedy Toole, first novelist Harsch assembles a memorable pack of bizarre characters, left behind in the small town of La Crosse, Wisconsin, after its more talented citizens move to richly cultured centers like New York. Richie Buck, "the man who ate the head of a pigeon called Nadine," is hired to kill the hero, Spleen, who falls in love with The Sneering Brunette. Surrounding this action are many amusing situations and characters, but the author's distinctive style?a unique blend of old radio drama, B-movie dialog and surprisingly effective speculation on the story's events from the most unlikly characters?is the the book's most rewarding aspect. The publisher is living up to its claim of bringing original and entertaining fiction to readers. Highly recommended for all collections.?David A. Berona, Univ. of New England, Biddeford, Me.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Search for Meaning in a Small Town,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Driftless Zone: Or, A Novel Concerning the Selective Outmigration from Small Cities (Hardcover)
Review by Victoria N. Alexander The aptly named Spleen is the alienated hero of Harsch's first novel, THE DRIFTLESS ZONE. While everyone with ambition or talent has happily escaped, Spleen has opted to remain behind in his hometown, a depressed area in Wisconsin called La Crosse. Spleen's lack of motivation may be attributed to his having learned that life has no meaning, but, absurdly, he can't help but pretend that it does. After stalling a good long while, he falls in love and quickly regrets it. His failure is partly due to his own real lack of initiative and partly due to his inability to discover a worthy object. This simple romance plot is made poignant by virtue of its relationship to the novel's larger theme of indeterminacy. Without fixed references, Spleen is reduced to primitive means of searching for significance, to augury for instance, and to reading into appearances. Spleen's world is best described as a post-modern allegory, the meaning of which, while strongly suggestive, is ever illusive. La Crosse is populated with personifications instead of people, characters with names such as "Roman" a Roman seer of sorts, "Darwin" (one of this first characters on the scene who sets the tone for the story as Charles Darwin did for the 20th century), "Fag With No Eyebrows," and Spleen's lover "Sneering Brunette." This could be Bunyan--or Langland. The novel's obsession with determinism would be almost medieval but for its post-modern twist. The determinism is genetic and cultural, not providential. If this situation is sadly comic, it epitomizes the ineffectuality of hope in anytown America. The call for a return to meaningful content throws back a hollow echo. But Harsch is not merely cynical. It is clear that the radical indeterminacy that ails Spleen is tragic BECAUSE of his covert nostalgia for essential meaning behind the sign. Harsch has dubbed the contemporary hero, "Noir Man." The "only reason he believes in anything is because he tells himself he has to or he can't act." Such self-aware practicality makes Spleen a likeable character on the one hand, but, on the other hand, his assumed posture of belief makes him superficially like any of the flat allegorical characters that surround and limit him. And eventually destroy him. Nevertheless, the potential for what was once known as real human heroism is there. It is this that makes the story interesting. In the novel, none of the characters is capable of communicating with any other, but Harsch opens up the inner existences of these stock types TO THE READER, beautifully expressing the Sneering Brunette's pleasure, for example, as that which "lay bruised and hungover, empty from vomiting, dialing a telephone, marvelously spent, attenuated and unafraid." Harsch's insights suggest that while motivation is apparently absent from the world, it seems very real to the individual. As we approach the end of the millennium, writers are looking for the next new direction. Harsch, coming out of a post-modern orientation, carves out the space for an entirely unique kind of optimism, and if he doesn't attempt to fill that space yet, one gets the feeling that he, or someone, soon will. THE DRIFTLESS ZONE is an artfully written novel that is worth reading more than once.
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