the muse and the mechanism [Paperback]

josh davis (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 2004

The Muse and the Mechanism: Love, sex, drugs, death, life, comedy, dreams, pop culture, racism, class, religion, 9/11, crime, failure, and epiphany, but not necessarily in that order. Old tongues blend with new actions as the modern hipsinisters vie to create a new language of the literary lost. At the Center is Charlie Fell, a twenty-something who can't make up his mind on his medium, his lovers, and his position in life.

Editorial Reviews

Review

A remarkable novel, eminently readable and assured. Earnest of what so good a writer must produce. -- bob williams, the compulsive reader, may 2004

About the Author

Josh Davis founded the first settlement on the shores of Delaware in the mid-1600's and immediately began mining the unpronouncable sound of quasi-explicit telephone magazine ads. Following a brief stint as a replacement Daren on bewitched, Davis began exploring his artistic "talents" door-to-door to rave reviews and the sporadic beer or turkey sandwich.

The Muse and the Mechanism is his second book.

Product Details

• Paperback: 260 pages
• Publisher: PretendGeniusPress (January 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0974726176
• ISBN-13: 978-0974726175
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,879,501 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Kerouac in the 21st Century!, April 8, 2004

By 

LittleWing (Greendale, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: the muse and the mechanism (Paperback)

If you like Kerouac,
If you've ever made a rug angel,
If you've ever danced with abandon,
If you've ever made a journey of the soul,
If you've ever looked at the world through a haze of clarity...
this book is for you.
Author josh davis certainly has a muse within...

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 76 words that may not convince you but are true regardless, April 6, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: the muse and the mechanism (Paperback)

Here is a book that is about living nowhere, trying to name unnameable fractures, being young and feeling old, spinning and swirling until you fall down.

You should read it, not because it is about any of these things, but because it is young, because it feels old, because you probably don't read enough books these days, because you almost certainly don't read enough books this stumblingly graceful, and because it might make you fall down.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not your average novel, April 5, 2004

By 

james raksend (Lima, OH USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: the muse and the mechanism (Paperback)

Though the back jacket insists this is the author's second novel, Davis writes with all the confidence of a seasoned veteran. His characters team with life and depth, each racing around the idiosyncrasies of their age (mostly twenties) with an all-too-familiar realism. His central character, Charlie Fell, is a classic literary idealist portrayed without much back story, or even a trace of a job, but is instead a strict present tense wonderer bent only (only?) on understanding everything, and everyone. He and his friends engage themselves in a seemingly endless series of domestic adventures, experimenting with the usual suspect substances, and handling romance as if it were a china dish at one moment, and a lit stick of dynamite the next. By the closing chapters of the book, everyone seems to have become involved with everyone else, and the small town backdrop of Alton begins to stir with a palpable volatility. Starkly human, often funny, and thoroughly beautiful, this is not your average novel; rather it's a young author's imagination edging ever closer to the ideal.