Pomona Queen [Paperback]

Kem Nunn (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 30, 2000

In seedy Pomona, Dan Brown's brother has been killed. Dan plans his revenge, but it isn't only Buddy Brown who's died. Pomona Queen takes a black-comic look at the desolation of this sleazy demimonde, with its decaying orange groves and its violent, druggy denizens. "Nunn is a swift, economical stylist with a gift for the absurd." - San Francisco Chronicle

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Pomona, Calif., is the setting for Nunn's remarkable exploration of the seedier side of his native state. (Apr.) *CHILDREN'S BOOKS
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Kirkus Reviews

A vacuum-cleaner salesman becomes entangled in a homicidal biker's quest to avenge his brother's murder: Nunn's death-haunted third novel (after Tapping the Source, 1984; Unassigned Territory, 1987) is as much about southern California's spacious past as its druggy, tacky present. After a few weeks on the job, 40-ish Earl Dean has become one of the best salesmen in town (Pomona, south of Los Angeles); the ``aging hipster'' is putting together the money to claim his inheritance and oust his stepfather from the land first settled by his great-grandfather, an orange grower. But bad luck brings Dean to the house of Dan Brown, ``full-blown white trash,'' who once killed a cop and is now getting seriously drunk guarding the corpse of his brother Buddy until he learns who killed him. This opening segment is magnificent black comedy, as Dean tries to pacify the unpredictable biker (``the man could go off''). Then word arrives that Buddy was stabbed by a wild woman with blond dreadlocks, leader of a band called Pomona Queen, and Dean, a great believer in secret signs, has a flash: The same name was used for the artwork on his great-grandfather's packing crates. The rest of the novel alternates between the buildup to a climactic confrontation with the alleged killer at a mall concert, and Dean's thoughts as he rides around town, the prisoner of Dan and his henchmen--for Dean, high as a kite but also badly shaken after various escape attempts, keeps seeing ``the pale grid of the dead'': especially his great- grandfather, shot mysteriously as Pomona's Chinatown was torched, and his one true love, Rayann, dying insane after too many bad trips. Much of the suspense ebbs away (despite a plot twist involving the killer's identity) as Nunn sifts through the layers of Dean's karma, and as Pomona's past rolls in like fog; still, Nunn remains an exciting writer, working close to the edge. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 236 pages
• Publisher: Thunder's Mouth Press (September 30, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1568581769
• ISBN-13: 978-1568581767
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 0.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #480,074 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A tasty yarn pulled out of a real Southern Calif. backyard, April 23, 1998

By 

Kevin Samson (Santa Cruz, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pomona Queen (Paperback)

A yarn pulled out of a Los Angeles backyard, Pomona Queen captures the people and places of its battered setting. There's more truth to this hilarious romp and rumble than its fictional label would have you believe. A vacum cleaner salesman, with a personal stake in old Pomo, is kidnapped by one of the town's infamous hoods. So begins a saga of surprises in the once-beautiful valley landscape as one twist turns into another leads to the final showdown at The Alibi Club, a real tavern you wouldn't want to visit after dark.The author has done his homework. His love-hate feeling for this ravaged locale squeezes a tart, juicy tale that will have you laughing, wincing and crying amid a setting that was once rich with sweet orange groves. A keeper. This guy can write.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Underrated Masterpiece about the Dream Journey, July 16, 2005

By 

M. JEFFREY MCMAHON "herculodge" (Torrance, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Pomona Queen (Paperback)

I was disappointed that the other reviewers weren't connecting this novel to its spiritual cousins: Cormac McCarthy's novel Blood Meredian and David Lynch's film Mulholland Dr. I mention Blood Meredian because Pomona Queen deals with the connection between violence and empire-building, specifically the blood that was shed during the creation of Pomona. Nunn's novel deals with a lot of violence and bloodshed, specifically of Earl Dean's forebears, that surrounds the history of Pomona's making. In that context we go into the nightmare world of Earl Dean, a vacuum cleaner salesman who goes to one house too many to sell his wares. His final house is owned by a drug-soaked, violent Dan Brown who kidnaps Earl Dean to conduct an order of business so bizarre you feel like you're entering a nightmare. Indeed, the nightmarish quality, punctuated by grotesque humor, evokes the dream journey, complete with perdition and the longing for redemption, which has similar components that we see in Mulholland Dr. In both the film and Pomona Queen, the dream journey is a sort of wish-fulfillment fantasy and in both the dream journey is never arbitrary or weird for weird's sake. There is a psychological realism that makes the events seem necessary and logical.

Earl Dean, a down and out vacuum salesman who's been duped by his stepfather and the world in general is looking for redemption, courage, and belonging. You'll have to read this harrowing, often bleakly funny novel to see if he finds them.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars An uneven ride through the night, November 10, 2003

By 

S. Harris (Spotsylvania, VA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Pomona Queen (Paperback)

No one - with the possible exception of Robert Stone - does aging hipsters living on the edge better than Kem Nunn (his "Dogs of Winter" is excellent). And there are no shortage of these outlaws in "Pomona Queen." Still, I found the novel to be a disappointment. At its best, there is an Alice-in-the-Valley weirdness to "Pomona Queen" that works well. In the novel's opening pages middle aged vacuum cleaner salesman Earl (Johnny Magic) Dean, trying once again to get a grip on survival, accidently steps back into his past, encountering biker and thug Dan Brown, who is mourning (sort of) the murder of his brother - who happens to be on ice in Dan's living room. Actually, it's more about revenge, though it's hard to tell, since lines of motivation converge and separate, often in the same conversation. But that's cool, since following Dan's reasoning is kind of like an amusement park ride through Hell.

More problematic however, is Earl's continuing reveries and/or meditations on the history of Pomona. A lot less of local history would of served Nunn well. No doubt Nunn intended to provide this as texturing. All those bones and decay and betrayal from Pomona's history must mean Something, even if it's Nothing, though Earl sort of fancies himself as a "theologian of hope." But from a storytelling point of view, given the sheer number of pages devoted to what is in effect a slight-of-hand literary device, the novel gets bogged down with some truly unnecessary information. In this case, a leaner novel would of made for a much meaner one. Nevertheless, there are a number of very fine (and funny) moments in the novel, making "Pomona Queen" worth a look for those interested in the portrayals of hipsters at the end of the rainbow. That said, it will be a cut & paste effort, which is always frustrating, since one realizes that a novel's promise was somehow missed.