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Sam McPheeters

The Loom Of Ruin Perfect Paperback – April 1, 2012

by Sam McPheeters (Author, Illustrator)

42 ratings

4.1 on Goodreads

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Trang Yang is an angry, angry, angry man, neurologically incapable of any emotion but rage. He's also L.A.'s most successful gas station franchise owner. But no one can quite seem to figure out what makes him tick. Not the LAPD, who have long since granted him full immunity. Not his boss, who scrutinizes him with covert psychologists. Not the corporate spies who infiltrate his stations. And certainly not the encroaching FBI, who know only that Trang is involved in something big and dangerous and that time is running out.

Print length

265 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Mugger Books
Publication date

April 1, 2012
ISBN-10

0984807802
ISBN-13

978-0984807802
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Disturbingly entertaining" - Philadelphia Weekly

"Exquisitely detailed, dark and humorous Los Angeles fiction about the angriest man in the world." - San Francisco Bay Guardian

"His tone is about 60 percent deadpan, 40 percent dead serious -- which is approximately the ratio that makes his new novel, 'Loom of Ruin,' so funny." - The Washington Post

"It's packed with so much action, violence and black comedy you'll swear you stumbled into a movie written by Kurt Vonnegut" - LA Weekly

"In the universe of The Loom of Ruin, human society has become a malevolent machine that's not just indifferent to our happiness but actively working to prevent it, as though it had not only become somehow sentient but also discovered that it hated us." - Chicago Reader

About the Author

Sam McPheeters was born in Lorain, Ohio in 1969. He is the former lead singer of Born Against, Men's Recovery Project, and Wrangler Brutes, and the founder of Vermiform Records. His columns, essays, profiles, and short stories have appeared in The American Prospect, Chicago Reader, OC Weekly, Punk Planet, The Stranger, Vice, and The Village Voice. He lives in Pomona, CA with his wife. The Loom Of Ruin is his first published novel.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Mugger Books; 1st edition (April 1, 2012)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Perfect Paperback ‏ : ‎ 265 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0984807802
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0984807802
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 11.7 ounces

Best Sellers Rank: #2,644,021 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #13,121 in Fiction Satire

Customer Reviews:
42 ratings

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Sam McPheeters

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Sam McPheeters was born in Ohio and raised in upstate New York. In 1981, at age 12, he co-authored Travelers Tales; Rumors and Legends of the Albany-Saratoga Region. Starting in 1989, he sang for Born Against, Men's Recovery Project, and Wrangler Brutes, touring 17 times across North America, Europe, and Japan. Since 2009, he has written for Bookforum, Criterion, Creem, Vice, and The Village Voice, among others.

author photo by Lisa Auerbach

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3 star		6%
2 star 0% (0%)		0%
1 star		4%

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Michael Walsh

Slow at times, but an end worth getting to

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 21, 2022

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Not sure if this will appeal to people who aren't already fans of Sam McPheeters music. But for people who love the absurd humor of Men's Recovery Project, this novel won't disappoint. It's a real satirical farce, full of outrageous characters and ridiculous plot twists. At the best parts. it compares to Chuck Palahniuk, Philip K Dick and John Kennedy Toole.

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Mr. Pukis

Punk author makes good

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 4, 2012

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I just finished this book and now I am sitting down to write my first online review of anything, ever. This is the level of feeling McPheeters's work, and this book in particular, inspires in me. Directly after reading it, my gut reaction is that The Loom of Ruin should be on the bestseller list. It has all the elements of a book blockbuster: page-turning suspense, action, emotional drama, absurd comedy and a story that flashes with all the bells and whistles of a Hollywood screenplay (plot twists, surprise connections, explosive ending!). All while (spoiler) outlining the total annihilation of Hollywood and the American way of life. This is an enjoyable trick; it is no secret that people thrill (myself included) at watching their destructive impulses play out writ large in the safety of an artistic work. Any number of contemporary blockbusters signal the public's willingness to participate in the mass fantasy of complete destruction. The fictional representation of this mass current of negative affect in the Loom of Ruin is certainly the main character, Trang Yang. Less a fully formed character than a force of nature, it is hard not to cheer Trang on as he looses his wrath upon greater Los Angeles like an avenging angel. Trang's motives (and the shadowy forces surrounding them) are slowly revealed through the book and by the end the feeling of catharsis is very real, despite the slim slivers of hope offered by the author for redemption. The Sabbath quote that serves as the book's parting remark slyly winks at you that this is all only for the old horrorshow fun of it all, that we can revel in the aesthetics of apocalypse without necessarily advocating for it.

This is also a punk trick-appealing to those dark instincts while dancing around the actual ethics of it all. When Sid Vicious or the Ramones wore nazi symbols on their leather jackets, no one was supposed to take it as a serious political symbol. Like this book, the best punk music appeals to your gut while upsetting your intellectual framework. I wondered to myself while reading, is that all this book is, a literary punk song set to provide cheap thrills at the expense of gobs of senseless fictional destruction? I, for one, would have been completely satisfied with such a romp. And yet, in the Loom of Ruin there is a real undercurrent of the absurdity of living in the US in 2012; the disparateness of lives hoodooed by globalism and technology that remain tangentially connected in the amorphous blob of 21st century life moving inexorably forward into God Knows What. The book is funny, laugh out loud funny, maybe one of the funniest books I have ever read and it is the humor of a world gone mad with the speed of its own dizzy spin. McPheeters is really taking a page from Delillo here-the spare, almost robotic prose underlines the madcap-ness of it all. After having grown up with McPheeters's musical output and following his various writing projects through the years, this novel is the logical extension of the author's work. In a world of a billion things happening all at once every second, could something rational possibly hold the strings? Will all the twitches and shorts in the imperfect human organism result in a massive species wide bellyflop? Has our current technological age served only to magnify the illusory nature of any notion of supposed human dignity?

Who knows. Anyway, to sum up: buy this book. It has Barack Obama, Russell Crowe and Henry Rollins in it. It will make you belly laugh at several points, guaranteed. I read it in less than a week, you probably will too, bleary eyed the next morning at work because you'll stay up wanting to know what happens next. A worthy shot into uncharted territory for Mr. McPheeters, ensuring his place in the Valhalla of Aging Punks Who Continue to Produce Interesting Work. Here's hoping this is his first of many (now that his Crying of Lot 49 is out, could his Gravity's Rainbow be far behind?).

5 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

Impressive debut

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 18, 2012

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If you're familiar with McPheeters, it's probably through his tenure as the frontman for the oft-called "seminal" (a term cheapened by major music outlets these days to describe mediocre piss-stains who blew their wad on a single decent release...in this case completely applicable) hardcore heroes Born Against. Older people who like to read probably continued to follow his stellar work writing for Vice.

Well this is his first novel and it's fantastic.

I kinda wanted to hate it. Well, not wanted to, but just figured I would. Because, more often than not, being able to string together an essay or a lyric sheet doesn't translate to a fictional narrative...let alone a novel.

You'll heard the word "absurd" and that's apt. You'll probably see reviewers say "a surrealist trek into a seedy Los Angeles terrain of angered souls begging for..." and that's somewhat on point, I guess, if you suck at writing reviews of great things. Others will just say "dude, cool book."

This is extraordinarily impressive. It maintains humanity through complex humor, sparing no one, and entertaining throughout. There's no need for hyperbole here. It's simply a great novel and I am grateful to have it.

Laughing out loud (lol'ing if you're under 18 or own an iPhone) when reading a novel is rare. It happens here.

Breezing through each page with great immediacy is indicative of a phenomenal read. This book has numerous infectious qualities and like any good disease, it festers and affects well.

I hate reviews that's detail too many details. So I'll spare you any insight or opinions of content.

All I can say is, from one anonymous Internet user to another, is I promise, as much as that's worth, you won't be disappointed.

I can't wait for the next one.

P.S. Homeslice is on tour. Check him out.

3 people found this helpful

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Pete Forde

A strong contender for being the funniest book I've ever read

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 4, 2012

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After enjoying Sam's writing for Vice over the past several years, when I heard he was working on a full-length novel I immediately knew that 2012 was going to be a bright moment in my life. I found the Mugger website and ordered my first copy immediately. Even the back cover makes me laugh.

Upon arrival, I realized that I was laughing out loud several times in a few pages. It is written with the timing and delivery of a great stand-up comedian, and yet it is one of the darkest and most cynical satires I've ever seen.

Within several hours I had gifted my first copy to a friend that I knew would love it, for her birthday. This was a massive sacrifice on my part, but I immediately ordered a second copy. Please note that Amazon doesn't (yet?) sell this book in Canada, so as a Canadian I'm paying a premium to have Amazon US ship these books to me.

Anyhow, it turns out that the entire book was crafted to make me laugh. Actually, forget laughing -- I can't remember the last time one book reduced me to tears on public transit. Once, I actually found myself hyper-ventilating. People definitely thought I was mentally ill or having a health emergency.

The only bad news for me was that it ended. I have a new favourite author. Thank you, Sam McPheeters. You are a hero in my world.

5 people found this helpful

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Reluctant Reviewer

Guaranteed bad times

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 18, 2020

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This ends with just the faintest glimmer of hope. The phrasing sounds at times like lyrics from Wrangler Brutes songs.

One person found this helpful

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