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Summer Reading
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By the end of the story, I knew that this was my favorite novel of all time.
It's the story of Daniel Pearce, an orphaned youngster who is brought under the guidance of some of the most off-kilter and bizarre people imaginable. While this may reek of HARRY POTTER, this is most assuredly a story for adults.
STONE JUNCTION is about the world behind the world, the people we sledom get to know. It is a world of crime, and conspiracies, and greed, and love, and magic. That author Jim Dodge holds it all together is a fine feat in and of itself, but he does more than that; he makes the reader yearn for this life. Although (in my edition) he states emphatically that the novel is a work of fiction ("Believe otherwise at your peril"), Dodge's world is so well-defined that it's difficult not to wish it existed.
The novel also has that one remaining aspect that so many novels, even the truly great ones, lack; it left me wanting more.
Ostensibly, this is a book about Daniel Pearse. When his mother is killed planting a diversionary bomb to help her boyfriend Shamus steal plutonium (see what I told you?), Daniel is introduced to the AMO. What the AMO is depends on who you are. Different people tell it different ways. Let's say it stands for alchemists, magicians and outlaws. That's pretty close. AMO arrange for Daniel to learn all of the important lessons : farming dope, safe-cracking, poker, meditation and the art of disguise. He also learns how to disappear and remain invisible. Daniel employs these skills to find his mother's killer and steal the spherical diamond I told you about before. As you do.
The whys and wherefores are less important than the hows. You know when lightning strikes, that pure blue electrical fuzz that sounds like aspirins in a glass of water and looks like cut telegraph wire in the rain? Jim Dodge writes like that pure blue electric fuzz. He fair knocks you off your feet and turns your hair white. "Stone Junction" is like Edward Hopper doing Hieronymous Bosch. It's "The Karate Kid" meets "Vanishing Point". Barry Gifford doing Richard Brautigan. Rothko painting "Guernica". You're in a world of impersonations and sleight of hand. It's a novel made up of people sawn in half by magicians and swallowed by fish. It's a novel about disappearing and the effects of speed-spiked maple pancakes. It's like Brad Dourif in "Wise Blood". Homer's "Odyssey" after a good kicking from Ken Kesey and Mark Twain.
In Big Star's "13", Alex Chilton asks "Would you be an outlaw for my love?" It's one of the big questions. This is the kind of book that makes you want to say yes, and keep on saying yes.