Customer Reviews

Stone Junction

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

There are few more enjoyable pleasures in this world than being caught completely off-guard by a novel. I picked up STONE JUNCTION at a discount book sale, drawn in by the jacket, and the price. I began reading it with absolutely no preconceived notions as to its content, or worth.

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.

If I tell you about road trips, CIA assassins, secret organisations and faulty bombs, you'll get the wrong idea. Let's face it, if I tell you "this is a story about . . ."(whatever), I'm steering you wrong. You'll get the wrong idea. Because, alongside the road trips and the faulty bombs, you've got spherical diamonds, alchemists, poker, group sex, pirate DJs, Vietnam vets searching for Death, houseboats, insane women with imaginary children, religious visions, delirious rats eating horses and a man who talks to his silver hand. You can't do justice to a Jim Dodge novel without the aid of diagrams, semaphore, hard whisky and drugs smoked in an oven-baked clay pipe. Ideally, you need to be sat outside a tepee in the middle of a desert at night watching the stars and thinking about how difficult it is to really understand anything (man).

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.

STONE JUNCTION is one of those books where you never know what is going to happen next. It's best to read it without knowing anything about it beforehand so you can charge through it wildly, marveling at this author's vivid imagination. The story takes a mother, her son, and a group of diverse characters all over the US on an outrageous scheme. It is described as an alchemical potboiler, which it clearly is, so expect magical and inexplicable events. I found this book in London where one of the staff from the bookstore had recommended it. I'm so glad!

i thought that this book was a masterpiece.it seemed like no other piece of fiction that i have read for a long time.it was interesting, intelligent and frankly i couldn't put it down.a marvelous piece of work.highly recommended,it's weird but in a good way.

Stone Junction reads like a literary Frankenstein construct - equal parts Tom Robbins' whimsy, Umberto Eco's esotericism, and Ken Kesey's individualism/anarchism, yet it is all Jim Dodge's brilliance. If this witches brew makes you blanche in horror then avoid this book. If, however, like me, it whets your imagination and sets your mind to salivating, then by all means crack the covers and come dance at the monster's ball!
Stone Junction will introduce you to the AMO - The Alliance of Magicians and Outlaws, or some say Alchemist Magicians and Outlaws, or perhaps Artists, Mythsingers, and Outriders. Whatever the acronym's meaning, it is made up of the most amazing collection of gentle grafters, charming grifters, clever forgers, high stakes gamblers, Zen safe crackers, mountain men drug dealers, forgers, alchemist, and magicians; anarchists all. Some reviewers have called these characters impossible. Improbable yes, but only impossible for those who lack experience and imagination. It is as fine a collection of heroes as one could wish for in this increasingly authoritarian age.
The tale itself is a quest, coming of age story, and parable. Its comedy will make you cry; its tragedy will crack you up with laughter. It is an excellent mirror of life.
Jim Dodge has reached the pinnacle of his writing powers in this his third novel. Fup, his first effort, is a charming but limited short parable. Not Fade Away, his second effort, presented an amazing journey without much of a destination. In Stone Junction, the journey Dodge imagines is incredible with an ending worthy of the story he creates.
If you find this review excessive, I will wager diamonds to toilet paper that you will not enjoy the novel. If it intrigues you, assume that you are the intended audience, and acquire this book ASAP.

Theo Logos

This is THE most incredible book I have ever read....I would go as far to say that it is infact my favorite novel! If i could award it 10 starts I wouldn't hesitate.

.....Buy this book,read it until it falls apart and then buy another.....

Enjoy!

The reason I do not give this book a rating of ten is the sad fact that it ends. A book as good as this should go on forever. Read it slowly like you would drink a good wine, then pray for Mr Dodge to give us more books.

I have to say a lot of my friends loved this book and when I finally got a copy, I was glad I didn't pay full price for it. Oh, Jim Dodge can write, but in this book he misses the mark. Daniel Pearse and the Alliance of Magicians and Outlaws goes way too far, not only strange but ridiculously unbelievable. Far too much fantasy even in a fantasy.

Hands-down the greatest book I've read in the past year. I'm still recovering from the last few pages. If you are a fan of Tom Robbins, Christopher Moore or Kurt Vonnegut you must read this book. When you do, you'll kick yourself for not getting to it sooner.

Truly impressive novel that ranges wildly through the 60s, 70s, and 80s... hippie/outlaw without being dated or navel-gazing. It's somehow wise and beautiful while having enough mystery, magic and grit to keep one glued to it right until the end. A shame that it ended. I want more!