Customer Reviews

The Drop Edge of Yonder

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I love, love, love Two Lane Blacktop, so when I saw R.W. had put out a new novel I pounced on it and found a book that at first glance seems redolent of Blood Meridian and other C. McCarthy books, but turned quickly into it's own hairy creation with a far more spiritual and humanistic aim and approach despite all the resonant violence and inhumanity it depicts. I wholly recommend it.

Rudolph Wurlitzer in an American screenwriter and author who was at various times praised by the king of post-modern lit. himself, Thomas Pynchon. He also happens to be heir to the Wurlitzer fortune but, by his own account, he couldn't take advantage of it as his father had done that already. At some stage Wurlitzer took a quasi-mythical spiritual journey through Asia, following the death of his 21-yo son. His only non-fiction oeuvre, `Hard Travel to Sacred Places' is in fact based on that travel.
There is one more anecdote worth recounting, partly because it contributes to a quite interesting life and partly because it's directly linked to `The Drop Edge of Yonder', the subject of this review: Rudolph Wurlitzer used to be pal with Jim Jarmusch. The friendship abruptly ended when Jarmusch, without Wurlitzer's knowledge, based his now-legendary fim `Dead Man' on a screenplay that the author had been working on, titled `Zebulon'.
Allegedly Wurlitzer considered suing but then, deciding the better of it, ended up extracting a novel out of his former screenplay and that novel goes by the title of `The Drop Edge of Yonder'.
It's a great work of fiction, a mystic western that is equal parts Cormac McCarthy (circa `Blood Meridian') and Jodorowsky.
The novel stars Zebulon Shook: mountain man, pelt trader, outlaw and trapper, Zebulon has been cursed by a half-breed Shoshoni woman and, as a consequence, he's trapped between the worlds. This circumstance allows for a mythical journey across the American Frontier to take place. Zebulon is not alone in this. The cast is made of many characters, ranging from the grandiose (count Ivan Baronofsky) to the deranged (Plug), from the sensual (the Abyssinian courtesan, possibly witch, Delilah) to the ruthless (The Warden, a character that reminded me of McCarthy's Judge).
Along the way there is room for beautiful descriptive passages, mindless violence (again, delivered in the same dry, matter-of-factish way that McCarthy employed), comedy and a desperate urge to be free, one of the genre's archetypal themes.
Not that there is much within `The Drop Edge...' that would fit in your average Far West adventure. The offbeat characters and the mythical vibe make for a much different read but, again, it's a great one.

Having recently finished reading "Blood Meridian" I was hesitant of Wurlitzer's novel, thinking it to be a more lighthearted approach to the expanding west theme of the 1800's. How mistaken I was! This novel has a deft touch and its characters resonate with the reader. There is a humor and humanity despite the bloodshed that occurs and that's no easy feat. It almost feels as if Cormac McCarthy decided to write magical realism, although that is taking too much away from Wurlitzer who is an absolute genious of a storyteller. Highly, highly recommended.

I can't say too much here as I am in the process of reviewing this book for Pop Matters but as a major league Wurlitzer fan I wanted to hop on here to say that "Drop Edge" is well worth the wait. I hate to use the shopworn phrase "metaphysical western" but, really, it applies and the theosophic bent of the story grows on the reader casually -- if anything, Wurlitzer is redundant with his symbolism (Queen of Hearts, anyone?)to ensure that we're getting his point. To the point that it almost becomes a heavy-handed joke. But as Wurlitzer, in the voice of Mexican seer Plaxico, says, "Let it go."

By the way, if the plot seems rather similar to Jim Jarmusch's movie "Dead Man" ... well, that's because "Drop Edge" was a circulated screenplay for many years under the title "Zebulon" and Jarmusch (along with Hal Ashby and Alex Cox at other junctions) once had it under option. Yeah. He ripped off Wurlitzer. But we got a superior novel out of the deal.

"The Drop Edge of Yonder" by Rudy Wurlitzer is a brilliantly written ride through an old west that's infinitely more interesting than the reality probably was.Its funny, provocative and completely crazy. Wurlitzer puts words together as well if not better than anyone out there.

This is the story of Zebulon Shook, a wild mountain man from Colorado. It's a kind of picresque story - he gets dragged from one random adventure to the next. It's also kind of magical realist, as it's full of Indian spirit people who prophecy and curse. Much of the story is about the gold rush in California - portrayed as an incident of global insanity, with colorful characters from every corner of the earth. It's stimulated me to go out and get some non-fiction books on the gold rush - I want to know more. Good read once it got going. I don't normally go for flights of fantasy, but the spirit world scenes were quite moving.

Thank you, Rudolph. I couldn't find any biographical informatin on you in the book, but I will definitely look out for more of your work.

I'm loving the book. I just recently became aware of this band called Earth, which is like country and western doom metal moving at the pace of molasses. It's really beautiful and sweet. I have REALLY been enjoying doing these two things at the same time. It kind of feels like going to the movies.

The Drop Edge of Yonder is like reading the screenplay of The Wild Bunch remade with David Lynch directing instead of Sam Peckinpah. Highly recommended.

Wurlitzer presents the frontier as a land of individualistic competition, and yet simultaneously as a place where life is uncontrollable, untamable, and surrendered to fate. The characters are in a constant struggle for control over their own lives; and it always seems just out of reach.

[..]

Really a great read. Couldn't put it down. Never wanted it to end. Rudolph Wurlitzer writes with the alacrity of a screenwriter, the lyricism of a poet and of course the storytelling of a great novelist which he surely is.