Customer Reviews

Our Ecstatic Days: A Novel

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"Our Ecstatic Days" is not a novel for the uninitiated. Steve Erickson fans will love it and will consider it the best thing they have read since the last Steve Erickson novel. The uninitiated will probably find it confusing since there are numerous references to previous novels. Steve Erickson's detractors will hate this novel as much as all his rest.

Like his previous novels, this is a story of obsession that takes place in a parallel universe to our own. To say it is weird would be an understatement. Fans of David Lynch and Salvador Dali will probably like this, as will people with bizarre and fantastic dreams. Read this novel and you will be haunted.

Compared to his other novels, Erickson is writing with more confidence than ever. This is a fearless author who is not afraid to take chances. His writing has an arrogant swagger of someone who knows what he wants to say and how he wants to say it.

Steve Erickson's novels are not for everyone. They are not for the squeamish. There are concepts that will challenge your imagination as well as graphic sexuality. I have heard it described once as "science fiction without the science."

It's been 20 years since the first Steve Erickson novel, "Days Between Stations." If you have never read a Steve Erickson novel before, that is where I suggest you start. If you like it, you will like all his novels. "Our Ecstatic Days" is his latest masterpiece and will be cherished by his fans because there is nothing else like it out there.

"Our Ecstatic Days" is such an unusual novel, it perhaps makes the most sense to discuss what it is not first. It is not a traditional novel in the sense that one character or group of characters progress through a chronologically coherent, or at least internally consistent timeline, to a definite conclusion. Moreover, it does not follow the traditional arrangement of text, or the general way one expects a story to unfurl. So, if you're not looking for something experimental, you've been warned, but I would encourage you to dismiss any preconceptions of what a novel should be and read on as this novel's content should surpass its structure for all but the most stubborn reader.

All that said, "Our Ecstatic Days" is one of the most powerful, remarkable novels I have encountered in quite some time. Layering discussions of parenthood in general, motherhood specifically, chaos, empathy, and hope, this is the type of novel that will read differently to any two people. However, both would have to agree that author Steve Erickson's use of unique mishmash of genres and styles, and even his avant garde structures somehow has produced a novel that is not only interesting, but absolutely gripping.

Trying to sketch out a plot would be next to impossible, but the general progression of the story involves one young mother Kristin's almost maniacal desire to see her son Kirk protected from an uncertain world. As a lake slowly submerges Los Angeles, she attempts to sacrifice herself in order to save him, but in the process unleashes a string of fractured and alternate realities that somehow are all interconnected, and only one of which is "real" in the most totalistic sense of the word. There are a host of critical interconnections between these realities, but the most compelling is the single line of italicized text that runs through the final two hundred thirty pages of the book, only to connect seamlessly with the conclusion of the alternate streams. This stream of consciousness should be read in its entirety prior to picking up the rest of the narrative thread, and quite effectively captures how an entire lifetime can unfurl in the blink of an eye. Moreover, it is a highly effective literal representation of the malleability of one's destiny, and perhaps one's past, that is central to Erickson's message.

To offer much more wouldn't so much spoil the plot as distract from it and corrupt the progression Erickson has set forth. Suffice it to say that he makes impressive ninety degree turns in both timeline and voice that would be distracting if they weren't so effective and linking together events that are otherwise seemingly unrelated. As he ties in the iconic figure of the man in front of the tanks at Tiananmen Square and the iconic image of 9/11 the novel progresses in increasingly fractured timelines across eighty years, American revolutions, the rise of cults and a other events to numerous to recount. Hence do seemingly inconsequential interconnections lead more and more forcefully to a dualistic philosophy of logic/love/hope devolving into chaos only to give birth to the same.

At the core of this emerging dichotomy is parenthood, and it is in Kristin and Kirk's relationship that Erickson offers his most powerful imagery. He displays a remarkable ability to express the wonder that parents see in their children, and further captures the edge placed on that wonder by the literally heartbreaking possibility of their loss. In this knife's edge of love and devastation, Erickson explores the deal-making with God that every parent goes through; trading their happiness for their child's. What no one can anticipate is what impact that very deal may have on the child, and can the consequences ever be reversed.

To place "Our Ecstatic Days" in context, it is a sort of a hybrid between "A Canticle for Leibowitz" by Walter Miller and "House of Leaves" by mark Danielewski. While not as overtly religious as the former, it nonetheless plays with post-apocalyptic themes, and more importantly how the vagaries of time can twist the course of history into unexpected dimensions. At the same time, while not quite as experimental as the latter, it nonetheless explores the power of the inner world and the nature of truth in a similar fashion. Furthermore, it is in many ways thematically similar to Marion Zimmer Bradley's "The Mists of Avalon" as both explore in depth the mystery of the female cycle; in particular, Kristin's relationship with the lake strongly echoes Morgaine's relationship with water in Bradley's work. There's definitely an element of modern paganism, which is somehow grounded in our modern day realism that infuses "Our Ecstatic Days" and strongly echoes Arthurian traditions.

It is likely that many will dismiss this novel for its structure without ever analyzing its content which would be unfortunate in the case of any novel, but particularly so in this instance. Steve Erickson has produced in "Our Ecstatic Days" a powerful, moving look at parenthood and finds in it a love so powerful it just might be able to save the world, or at least or souls. Almost certain to stand as one of the best novels of 2005, it is a unique, utterly absorbing creation that begs to be read.

Jake Mohlman

"Our Ecstatic Days" is the latest in a career of fantastic books. Like the others, it is a delicious, delirious reading experience.

As another (very positive) reviewer mentions, those who've read Erickson's earlier novels will recognize characters they've met before. The reviewer is correct, but this shouldn't make anyone feel obliged to "study up" before approaching his newest work. In fact, I would suggest that the less you bring to it the better. If you're really encountering this book on the terms it demands of you, you'll find yourself letting go of most of what you know about the world -- time, space, natural science, etc -- as it progresses.

I loved the book and that's really my point here. One further point, and the main reason I've posted this review (the first time I've ever been moved to do so), is offered up in response to a previous post.

If we're going to lump Erickson's new book into the "genre" of "experimental fiction" and then (go with me for a moment as I grapple with this logical fallacy) determine that it must therefore be just one more standardized piece of product like all others from this "genre," what sort of literary production are we to champion? I don't even mind calling experimental fiction a genre, though it's not the term I would use and seems inaccurate in describing Erickson's work, but once we do so there still has to be room in that genre -- as in all others -- for original voices and pioneering visions.

Erickson's is a truly original voice. A voice that's poetic, hypnotic and authentic. One gets the sense that he knows he's not Tom Clancy and doesn't aspire to that mass appeal, instead simply writing the best, truest books he can generate. There is no claim to empire and one's attire, or lack thereof, seems completely irrelevant.

Reviewed by Katherine Darnell for Small Spiral Notebook

Our Ecstatic Days by Steve Erickson is a fiercely thematic and though-provoking look at a futurist Los Angeles entering the so-called Age of Chaos. Erickson has undertaken an extended meditation on loss, motherhood, identity, chaos, power, love, and the amorphous nature of relationships. While at times maddeningly non-linear, the continuous toying with the shape and content of the novel serves to bolster Erickson's ideas about the state of the world and the potential for our fears to be realized. He passionately explores the ways that humans are trapped in a sustained and endless cycle of birth and rebirth, with the characters of Our Ecstatic Days repeatedly forced to relive the agonies of the world in a karmic exercise of persistence and endurance. The unconventional organization of the novel includes an italicized stream of text darting through most of the book as well as passages printed in shapes that ebb and flow on the page. Erickson is not afraid to dispense with traditional concepts of chronology and order, with the novel jumping freely through time, space, and events in a way that is unleashed and un-reigned.

Central to the novel is Lake Zed, a lake that has inexplicably formed in the center of Los Angeles, submerging entire neighborhoods with its mysteriously sourced water. Kristin Blumenthal takes her three-year-old son Kirk (named for the father of existentialist thought, Soren Kierkegaard), on a ride to the center of the lake in a silver gondola. Kristin, in a wave of either madness or clarity, crawls over the edge of the gondola and begins her plunge to the source of the lake. When she remerges, her son is gone from the boat, and owls ominously circle the sky. This catalyzing event gives birth to a chimera of time-bending, shape-shifting events, unleashing a rumination that forces the reader to contemplate an ominous, vaguely sci-fi, alternative future in which the newly childless Kristin becomes Lulu Blu, a dominatrix working out of the Chateau X hotel, who becomes Saint Kristin revered by a cult of followers, who becomes the Madwoman in Red constantly perambulating the lake. The monkey doll that Kirk carried with him in the gondola on that inauspicious day takes on theological weight and status as a relic, and Kirk reappears throughout the novel, morphing into a variety of incarnations, ultimately realized as a mysterious, solitary figure navigating a gondola on the lake, a kind of savior to Bronte Blu, who might be another child of Kristin's. There is also a parallel character named Kristin, a woman who is mourning a deep, unbearable loss in another apartment in Los Angeles. Erickson dares to incorporate the historically based character of Wang, who stood defiantly before army tanks during the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. Wang finds himself thrust into the post-Tiananmen Square future in Los Angeles, where public perception forces him to forever face the iconic image of himself standing in protest before the tanks bearing down on him. Wang is elevated to a hero in the dispersed wars and battles being waged in Los Angeles, a series dubbed the Tribulations. He writes letters of adoration and devotion to the parallel Kristin, but sadly the letters go unanswered because they never reach the right woman, instead being delivered to Kristin Blumenthal.

Erickson focuses on the role and meaning of motherhood and womanhood, liberally employing metaphors for the fluid, embryonic, and menstrual aspects of the world in Our Ecstatic Days. The lake growing in the center of L.A. is a great effeminate entity, mystifying, powerful, unpredictable. Kirsten is fearless before the birth of her son Kirk, but once she becomes a mother her fears of chaos and potential danger becomes all-consuming. Even the italicized sentence that darts through the novel feels umbilical, detailing Kirsten's descent to the bottom of Lake Zed and then back up, where the reader is repeatedly told that she is journeying, "through the birth canal of the lake."

The question "What If" hangs over Our Ecstatic Days, haunting every aspect of this world. What if Kirk hadn't disappeared? What if Kristin hadn't decided to dive down to the source of Lake Zed? Because of these events, the world spins out into a surreal place of turmoil and heartbreak. Erickson argues with the idea and power of God, including a bondage hallucination by Lulu/Kristin, who imagines herself as a dominatrix to God. She berates and humiliates him, tying him up, violating him, whipping him, cursing him for his cruelty. She rails against God for inflicting such pain, for treating humans like toys, for creating such chaos. It is her revenge fantasy and a way of getting back at Him for the pain and humiliation he inflicts on the world.

Despite the strange and painful journeys endured throughout Our Ecstatic Days, the novel ends with a melody of hope. The world rights itself in small but significant ways and the past is proved to be suppler than previously imagined. Kristin moves back up through the water, towards the silver gondola where she'd left Kirk, back into the realm of order. Whether this movement is intended as metaphor or reality (or most likely both), Erickson takes the reader away from the dark recesses of history and war and loss and mourning, back into the light, above the lake of unexplained origins, where hope might still live, where life might remain untouched by the taint of the future.

I had never read nor heard of Steve Erickson until Simon and Schuster asked for permission to use the lyrics for my song "Opal Moon" in his book. Before I gave permission, I requested a copy of a book so I could see what the writing was like. They sent me "Rubicon Beach" -- which I thought was strange and beautiful. Upon reading "Our Esctatic Days", I found that these two books might be companion books (in fact, one chapter is the beginning excerpt from "Rubicon Beach"), both living in the same world. I found the book compelling to read, and for those who have suffered a loss in their life, it will resonate.

Just finished Our Ecstatic Days, and it has my head spinning. The separate narratives, the fact that he even has a page-to-page trailing, separate narrative interrupting the main text, the fact that he makes them actually, coherently MEET UP?!
I loved the ride, Mr. Erickson. Saw and heard you read from this one in Berkeley and finally had the chance to sit down and read it.

Erickson is unparalleled in my mind as the greatest contemporary writer alive. As a voracious reader, I am in bookstores frequently. It is a rare visit where I don't check the "E" section of the fiction shelf to see if Erickson's got a new book out. The six year wait between "The Sea Came in at Midnight" and "Our Ecstatic Days" was torture.

I imagine that Erickson's books have a special appeal to those of us who like to think of ourselves as more dialed-in to the vibrations of collective memory than others, but I would be hesitant to categorize his books into a specific genre (e.g. "post-apocolyptic surrealism"). What resonates with me personally about Erickson's books in general, and this one specifically, is their ability to replicate the lucid dream state- where things are both more real and unreal than in waking life. I'm sure the themes mean different things to different people; for me, they represent the possiblities of parallel lives, which is as comforting as it is disconcerting.

Having read all of Erickson's novels, I would rate this one somewhere in the middle. Having said that, I still think he is the best contemporary author we have. With the exception of the brilliant segment of the Rooms of Lost something or others, I felt this book was a rehash of his past works. But I honestly did not see how he could improve on "The Sea came in at Midnight", so i wasn't let down. If you've never read Erickson, this book might be a good introduction, though i recommend starting with "Days Between Stations" and read them all. Thank you Steve Erickson!!!!!!!!

Last July, while supervising my department's move into a new building on a scorching Saturday afternoon, I began reading Steve Erickson's book "The Sea Came in at Midnight". It was a luminous, hypnotic novel, full of fantastic imagery and strange logic. I thought, this is my kind of writer.

So I finally got around to reading a second book by Erickson, and it's "Our Ecstatic Days" -- which, it turns out, is kind of a sequel to the previous book, picking up more or less where that one left off. If there's a protagonist of either story, it's Kristin Blumenthal, former cult member, concubine, memory girl, and now mother of three-year-old Kierkegaard (called Kirk). Kristin, who used to be fearless to the point of recklessness, has been reduced to a sniveling mass of fear and paranoia simply by giving birth.

Kirk is a strange little child, demanding and controlling, making odd pronouncements such as "I am a Bright Light." But if the boy is strange, the events that surround him are even stranger. As Kristin and Kirk try to make a comfortable, safe life at the top of a hotel, a lake suddenly springs up in the center of Los Angeles. It grows larger and deeper by the day, swallowing up streets and buildings, inching ever closer to the Blumenthals' hotel room. Kristin, convinced that the lake wants to take Kirk from her, decides to confront the lake at its source. She and Kirk row out to the center of the lake, and she jumps in. When she resurfaces, Kirk is gone.

He has been snatched away by owls.

The delight of Erickson's writing is in stumbling around the corner to discover an unexpected turn of phrase or a fascinatingly nonsensical plot point (the color blue completely vanishes from the earth, for example). Keeping up with the plot -- such as it is -- is hard work, but this isn't the kind of story you should endeavor to understand. On the contrary, it's the kind of story you absorb, like David Mitchell's "Ghostwritten". It's almost like poetry.

That's not to say that it's perfect. Erickson returns again and again to some really awkward metaphors about motherhood and reproductive anatomy (for example, Kristin becomes a dominatrix who tells fortunes by reading the patterns of her menstrual blood in the toilet. Eew!). But as an abstract, very surreal depiction of what loss -- and the fear of loss -- feels like, Erickson mostly succeeds.

"The Sea Came in at Midnight" is a better book, and I'd urge anyone to read it before trying to read this one. But "Our Ecstatic Days" is a more than worthy follow-up, and I recommend it to the initiated or the brave.

i'm not sure i can talk about this novel in a way that tells other readers how utterly bizarre and fantastic it is. i've read erickson's novel twice and the second reading gave me a different perspective than the first. coming from a visual artists background, i was absolutely enraptured with the descriptions of the sky, water, buildings, characters, moods - he truly engages his readers in a fantasy world filled with eerie yet beautiful images to conjure up in our minds. it spurred my imagination toward creating artwork based on his imagery. and he left me confused, interested and wanting more. the characters were some of the strangest i've come across but ones that have stayed with me long after finishing their story. i will most likely read it yet again and highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys having their reality being toyed with.