The second edition of "12-12-12" is out! Financial crisis in Eurozone averted. American economy bounces back. Poverty, disease and ignorance disappear from planet. No more war! Peace and love assured among all of humankind! It's a new age of hope!
Okay okay. Maybe I got carried away. Truth is "12-12-12" will not change your life. But reading it will make it a little more interesting and entertaining for a while.
It's reality with healthy doses of hyper-reality and comedy, spawned by the tragic absurdity of our times. "12-12-12″ is dark, ironic, witty, at times surrealistic, sometimes just plain weird.
What can I say?
All I can suggest is to do the right thing. Don't let people who know what they're talking about discourage you from diving into this novel like you would a hot tub filled with your best friends and your favorite champagne. Strap on that snorkel, your goggles, and take the plunge.
Maybe you need a little more encouragement? Like those folks at Jamestown who were thirsty as hell but had this nagging feeling something was up with the lemonade?
I know that I am mortal by nature, and ephemeral;
but when I trace, at my pleasure, the windings
to and fro of the heavenly bodies, I no longer
touch Earth with my feet: I stand in the presence
of Zeus himself and take my fill of ambrosia.
- Ptolemy (2nd Century)
"The End Of The World"
Quite unexpectedly, as Vasserot
The armless ambidextrian was lighting
A match between his great and second toe,
And Ralph the lion was engaged in biting
The neck of Madame Sossman while the drum
Pointed, and Teeny was about to cough
In waltz-time swinging Jocko by the thumb
Quite unexpectedly the top blew off:
And there, there overhead, there, there hung over
Those thousands of white faces, those dazed eyes,
There in the starless dark, the poise, the hover,
There with vast wings across the cancelled skies,
There in the sudden blackness the black pall
Of nothing, nothing, nothing -- nothing at all.
- Archibald MacLeish (20th Century)
The only thing as effective as great satire
at mocking the human condition is reality itself,
which is why sometimes you can't tell them apart.
- John Rachel (21st Century)
From the Back Cover
"12-12-12 builds the case that America is in decline. It is more a work that stands as proof that the American literary arts are in decline." - London-Manchester Raconteur
"11-11-11 was evidence enough that the author was unhinged. 12-12-12 is proof that the writings of John Rachel are dangerous. Enough is enough!" - St. Louis Literary Review
"It is hard to make a valid case in a free society for censorship. Having said that, this book should be banned and the author subjected to a lifetime of solitary confinement in a nation where torture is common practice." - New England Journal of Aesthetics
"Why would the CIA allow this sort of vile, slanderous rubbish to continue to be available in America? It seems worth the price of a Predator Drone to keep John Rachel from subjecting us to any more of his insulting and subversive work masquerading as literary fiction." - L. A. Contemporary Magazine of the Arts
"This what you get when psychosis is mistaken for creativity." - Chicago Journal of Arts and Science
"The author lives overseas. That's because if he ever steps foot in America again, he'll be drawn, quartered and left for the flies to finish off on the National Mall." - Miami Sentinel Post
"Kids of America: There's a lesson in 12-12-12. This is your brain on meth, marijuana, glue and Godless television." - Tennessee Televangelist Report
About the Author
John Rachel has a B. A. in Philosophy, has traveled extensively, is a songwriter and music producer, a left-of-left liberal, and has spent his life trying to resolve the intrinsic clash between the metaphysical purity of Buddhism and the overwhelming appeal of narcissism. Prompted by the trauma of graduating high school and having to leave his beloved city of Detroit to attend university, the development his social skills and world view were arrested at about age 18. This affliction figures prominently in all of his creative work.
In October of 2008, while living in Japan, he completed his first novel, From Thailand With Love. It is a thriller about the trafficking of adolescent Asian girls for prostitution in America. It is set in Brooklyn, NY but ranges over a number of locations, including Chicago, Duluth, Seattle St. Louis and San Francisco the U. S., and Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, Malaysia and Singapore.
In November of 2009, he completed his second novel, The Man Who Loved Too Much, written over ten months, as he lived in and traveled through Japan, China, Nepal, and India. It follows the convoluted life of a young man from age 4 to 28, as he tries to find his place in the world. The story is set in Detroit, upstate New York, and New York City. At 800+ pages it is an epic. Perhaps it should have been titled The Man Who Wrote Too Much.
While writing his third and fourth novels, 11-11-11 and 12-12-12, he hopped around between Vietnam, Japan, Taiwan, Indonesia, South Korea and the Philippines.
His last permanent residence in America was Portland, Oregon where he had a state-of-the-art ProTools recording studio, music production house, radio promotion and music publishing company. He recorded and produced several artists in the Pacific Northwest, releasing and promoting their music on radio across the U.S.
You can follow his adventures and developing world view at: jdrachel.com.
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