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A Story of Disenchanted Youth
Read the first chapter of Futureproof, by N Frank Daniels [PDF]. |
No past. No future. Only now.
Originally a self-publishing success launched on N. Frank Daniels's MySpace page, the novel Futureproof tells the story of Luke and his friends as they navigate Atlanta’s subculture of delinquents. In short order, the seemingly harmless high from his first cigarette sends Luke on a downward spiral that ends only after years of self-abuse. It is an extreme cautionary tale told with sensitivity, ferocity, and grit.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Furious energy needs a finer form,
By
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Futureproof (Paperback)
Blighted by a fractured family and a serious case of generalized hate, the directionless Gen-Xer, Luke, begins a seemingly inevitable descent into serious drug addiction against the background of the early 1990s ... "Futureproof" is a wild, unfocused mess of a novel that still manages to be compelling. It's far too long, structurally inept, filled with sketches instead of characters, too much preachy dialogue, gratuitous violence and dull sex - and yet there's an awesome energy here that just keeps pulling you in. That energy, I suspect, is the author's earnestness. His deep passion, his violent need to tell this tale, is palpable on every page. It's as though he's locked behind the wheel of the V8 T-Bird that is his burgeoning talent but he doesn't quite yet know how to drive: even when it's completely out of control, there's still something about the spectacle that makes you smile with appreciation. But a novel requires more than desire. There's a vast amount of coolheaded craftsmanship that goes into turning even the most amazing real or imagined experiences into a piece of literary art. Don't get me wrong. Daniels can write. There are flashes of the real thing here: the muzak-driven banality of Andie's abortion; Luke's sad motel liaison with Nadia; and the utterly perfect description of shooting up with heroin for the first time: "I am in love. I am alive and I am in love. I am home." (And he has the seed of a Pulitzer-winner in those "Andersonville" vignettes, but it would be a very different novel and would take an Updike, a DeLillo or a Roth to pull it off.) "Futureproof" ends much better than it starts - in the final third, when something's actually at stake, it's gripping and heartbreaking in equal measure. But the whole thing needs a more disciplined approach to dramatic structure, characterization, and much more thoughtful poetics. The voice wears thin too early. Pathos too often turns to bathos. I'd cut every second chapter. Sounds crazy, I know. But go read Ryu Murakami's "Almost Transparent Blue" (1976) and see how much can be done with the same kind of characters trapped in the same kind of nightmare in little more than a hundred pages. The difference is that Murakami knows precisely what he's aiming for. He could state it in a sentence. He picks his moments and his central metaphor accordingly.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A thoroughly absorbing journey into - what was for me - the unknown,
By Rhubarb (Portugal) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Futureproof (Paperback)
Wayne kindly lent me his copy of Futureproof, by N. Frank Daniels (sorry Mr. Author, I know that's one less copy sold, but hey, if it's any consolation, this is one more positive review) and strongly recommended it. In fact, Wayne's recommendation is in the book itself in the testimonials.
But, to be honest, I wasn't expecting to like it. Wayne told me about how it's about a young guy's journey into the world of drugs, and the other reviews talk about the great style of the book, and frankly, it didn't sound like it would be my thing. Having followed the straight-and-narrow, role-playing-game-playing, computer-nerd path through adolescence and early adulthood, I just didn't think I would relate. And this "style" didn't sound inviting either. But Wayne liked it, and that was good enough to get me started. As it turned out I did relate slightly. From Luke's experience of the Rocky Horror Picture Show and onward, I recognized a lot of cultural references that were contemporary with my own adolescence - even though I was on the other side of the world and on a nerd-trajectory to adulthood. As it really turned out, however, none of this mattered. I didn't need to relate to anything in Luke's life. With his supremely economical, first person, mini-scene chapters Daniels lead me deeper into the life of Luke, as he seems to slide down into ever more serious drug addiction, than I could possibly have imagined. Daniels sketches his story as if in a series of short, detailed stills in the margins of a notebook, then flicks it past us like a flicker-book. The effect left me at first wishing for more continuity between the chapters - more ongoing-story. But I was quickly hooked and I soon found that myself really needing to get to the next bite-sized chapter. Luke's piecemeal descent from a recognizable, ill adjusted teenager, into a hard drug user is so subtle it's unnerving. Disturbing because there's no one place or time where he makes a clear irretrievable leap into the abyss, so there's no easy way to point to one wrong turning or stupid decision and reassure myself: Well there's no way I would have done that. He brings us along so closely with him that its hard to say we wouldn't end up in the same dire situation. I was supposed to be working when I read this, but I kept telling myself I'd just read one more chapter, then I'd put it down and get to work, go to sleep, get on with my life - whatever essential activity I was currently forgoing to get another hit of Futureproof. Seriously, that's the way I came to think of it. Luke was drawing me into his mentality and it took me a while to realize that I was blurring the story with the act of reading it. And this is the highest commendation of Futureproof - forget "style", it has that most laudable of styles: the one where you can't remember later if there was any style to speak of. No, the highest commendation is that, having nothing in common at all with this character, I still came out identifying more with Luke than with any character since Updike's Harry Angstrom. (I remember for years after reading the last of the Rabbit stories, I would still see something like a macadamia nut and catch myself thinking "Harry would like that". I had nothing in common with him either.) Daniels, through the person of Luke, has basically ruined me for looking down at the local drug-addict teenagers I see hanging out not-nearly-far-enough-away from my kids' school. I used to feel an intolerant moral disgust for them. But now I see Luke in there amongst them and it's harder to remain so detached. I guess I don't want to have any more to do with them than I did before, but they do seem a lot more like people now. I can't leave this review on that note, though. Otherwise it might seem that the point is that you should read the book so you might sympathize better with junkies. Screw that. You should read this book because it will grab you and draw you so rapidly, so inexorably into Luke's life that you won't be able to put it down to get on with your own. That's what novels are for. That's what literature is all about. Make no mistake, Futureproof is literature, and it's a sad indictment of the state of modern publishing that it should be languishing on Lulu.com instead of flying off the shelves at Barnes and Noble. Buy it and read it. Or if your cheap like me, ask Wayne if you can borrow his copy. (Wait till I give it back to him though - sorry Wayne, I'm bringing it next week, I promise).
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Refreshing!,
By Kristen Tsetsi "Author of 'Homefront.' Webpa... (Upper-state New York) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)
This review is from: Futureproof (Paperback)
It's not easy for me to become - and then stay - interested in a book. I don't know how many I've picked up in the past few months, only to set them down and forget about them.
There was no forgetting Futureproof. I was immediately drawn to the narrator's conversational (and often caustic) voice, and after that, the characters themselves - each of them real and complex - added to the book's allure. It's also getting inside people and taking vicarious pleasure in the things we really aren't supposed to take pleasure in that really attracts me to reading any particular book. (If you can't be improper in fiction, where can you be?) Daniels provides one such guilty-pleasure scene on page 66: "I kick him hard in the ribs, hear the wind rush out of him. Then I take my boot to his face a few times for good measure. He doesn't move anymore after that. "Should I relish these moments? Probably not. But I do. I can't stop kicking him." Futureproof is deliciously hardcore and a wonderful read.
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