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A Million Heavens
On the top floor of a small hospital, an unlikely piano prodigy lies in a coma, attended to by his gruff, helpless father. Outside the clinic, a motley vigil assembles beneath a reluctant New Mexico winter—strangers in search of answers, a brush with the mystical, or just an escape. To some the boy is a novelty, to others a religion. Just beyond this ragtag circle roams a disconsolate wolf on his nightly rounds, protecting and threatening, learning too much. And above them all, a would-be angel sits captive in a holding cell of the afterlife, finishing the work he began on earth, writing the songs that could free him. This unlikely assortment—a small-town mayor, a vengeful guitarist, all the unseen desert lives—unites to weave a persistently hopeful story of improbable communion.
272 pages, Hardcover
First published July 3, 2012
78 people are currently reading
1737 people want to read
About the author
John Brandon
43 books149 followersAlthough John Brandon is an MFA graduate of the writing program at Washington University in St. Louis, while drafting the novel Arkansas, he "worked at a lumber mill, a windshield warehouse, a Coca-Cola distributor, and several small factories producing goods made of rubber and plastic." In his spare time, he obsesses over Florida Gators football.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 151 reviews
July 2, 2012
I guess I forgot to tell you guys about this one when I proofed it, sorry. It's kind of a slower burn than his previous books; it felt a little draggy at the beginning, but all of a sudden I was so immersed in it and it just tears through from there on. Unsurprisingly, being John Brandon, it's really super sad, but it's a bit more plangent than the previous ones, and less cruelly fucked up.
Also, jeepers, look how pretty that cover is! Oh, McSwy's, you can do no wrong.
Also, jeepers, look how pretty that cover is! Oh, McSwy's, you can do no wrong.
July 26, 2012
I want very badly to give this book 5 stars because so much is done so well within it, but then there's the wolf, and Reggie. Honestly, if these two characrer weren't there, getting in the way, and insisting on a direction, I think Brandon's other characters, all so wonderfully crafted and honest, might have taken the story to even better places.
September 22, 2012
A Million Heavens drove me crazy. How dare the author write such a disjointed narrative and then tie it together so beautifully in the last few pages? John Brandon can write beautifully but I wanted a story that I could dig into without keeping a journal of 'symbolism that I should (but don't want to) think about'.
I plodded through narration by a wolf, a gas station owner, a dead guy, a mayor, some guide, Arn, Dannie, Cecilia, Soren's father, and assorted others. I know the characterizations were layered to reveal a universal truth. I understood the power of "dreaming about what they already got." Yet, I felt duped as a reader. I never knew enough about the characters to really care about them and their long-winded, convoluted stories. At the center is Soren, a gifted pianist who is in a coma. I'm fine with that as a catalyst to see how others behave. I just found myself perpetually annoyed by the multiple narrators.
Powell's Indiespensable club chose this book for me. I'm back to picking my own books. I have this compulsion to finish (almost always) any book that I start so I need to chose very carefully.
I plodded through narration by a wolf, a gas station owner, a dead guy, a mayor, some guide, Arn, Dannie, Cecilia, Soren's father, and assorted others. I know the characterizations were layered to reveal a universal truth. I understood the power of "dreaming about what they already got." Yet, I felt duped as a reader. I never knew enough about the characters to really care about them and their long-winded, convoluted stories. At the center is Soren, a gifted pianist who is in a coma. I'm fine with that as a catalyst to see how others behave. I just found myself perpetually annoyed by the multiple narrators.
Powell's Indiespensable club chose this book for me. I'm back to picking my own books. I have this compulsion to finish (almost always) any book that I start so I need to chose very carefully.
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March 5, 2025dnf at 35%
February 21, 2013
I really liked this novel. It fits together like a half-dozen character studies. It seemed disjointed at first and I had some difficulty fitting the pieces together, but by the last 1/2 I was truly transfixed. Awestruck in the last quarter. A beautiful, creative narrative about loss and need and connection and the things we are willing to give away. I look forward to reading more of his writing.
September 26, 2013
I love libraries, and I love librarians who take a chance on books that may not make it to the best-seller lists. (I don't know how they choose, but if anyone would like to enlighten me, I'd appreciate it.) Here in Seattle/King County we have great librarians. In the past year I've taken a chance on five books that ended up to be 4/5 star titles. All from the library, all off the shelves on a whim - lucky me. A Million Heavens makes it six.
A child prodigy who taps the universal chords for all of 30 seconds falls into a coma. The six or so other characters tracked in this novel are all touched by that incident - some more directly than others, but all within the orbit. John Brandon does a terrific job of giving life to each of the characters, and a few others on the periphery. This is a book about the good we do to and for one another, even with some bad mixed in, and I think the entire work is a love hymn of sorts. It's the most optimistic read of the year for me. It also takes place between Albuquerque and Santa Fe, and I love the SW as much as I love libraries.
It lost a star in its ultimate resolution, but it kept me hanging on to the very end, even if the ending confused me. Ah well, on the great whole it's a book to enjoy, and to think about. Well worth the read.
A child prodigy who taps the universal chords for all of 30 seconds falls into a coma. The six or so other characters tracked in this novel are all touched by that incident - some more directly than others, but all within the orbit. John Brandon does a terrific job of giving life to each of the characters, and a few others on the periphery. This is a book about the good we do to and for one another, even with some bad mixed in, and I think the entire work is a love hymn of sorts. It's the most optimistic read of the year for me. It also takes place between Albuquerque and Santa Fe, and I love the SW as much as I love libraries.
It lost a star in its ultimate resolution, but it kept me hanging on to the very end, even if the ending confused me. Ah well, on the great whole it's a book to enjoy, and to think about. Well worth the read.
June 25, 2021
There are 6 or 7 point-of-view characters in this book, and they run on parallel tracks, every now and then looping around each other in near collisions. There's Cecilia, a college student who doesn't know how to grieve the passing of her friend and bandmate, Reggie. You also observe Reggie's ghost/spirit/whatever in his liminal space between life and afterlife. You follow a wolf on his prowls around his territory. The mayor of a small New Mexico town seeks a way to save his town from financial collapse by courting a wealthy cult. An aimless woman tries to trick a young man into getting her pregnant. A gas station owner plans a spiritual quest out into the desert, from which he's not sure he wants to return.
Each of these characters is fine enough to spend time with on their own, but the real joy in this book is to see how they all merge and criss-cross together. Other reviewers have described it as elegant; I thought it was pretty good, but not great. It's been probably ten years since I read the previous John Brandon books (Arkansas and Citrus County), both of which, like this one, I rated three stars. That means I liked but didn't love them, but I feel like Brandon is capable of making something that I love.
Ivory Shoals sounds great to me, and I think I'll pick that up soon.
Each of these characters is fine enough to spend time with on their own, but the real joy in this book is to see how they all merge and criss-cross together. Other reviewers have described it as elegant; I thought it was pretty good, but not great. It's been probably ten years since I read the previous John Brandon books (Arkansas and Citrus County), both of which, like this one, I rated three stars. That means I liked but didn't love them, but I feel like Brandon is capable of making something that I love.
Ivory Shoals sounds great to me, and I think I'll pick that up soon.
January 8, 2020
A Million Heavens is my type of literary comfort food. That is, a book with multiple perspectives all crossing each other and then nicely tied up.
Soren is in a coma, and this affects a group of people connected to him; his father, his piano teacher, a person dating an older man, the mayor of the town he resides in, a girl, a wolf and a dead musician. All destinies are linked and it is up to the reader to make connections.
I’ve read many books like this so other than the narrative of the dead musician, which is brilliant, I found the rest of the novel to be ok. This was a solid read and time passed nicely. Brandon has a good writing style, a bit too Palahniuk at times but it didn’t hinder the reading experience. I’d recommend it to someone who’s just starting to get in this genre.
Soren is in a coma, and this affects a group of people connected to him; his father, his piano teacher, a person dating an older man, the mayor of the town he resides in, a girl, a wolf and a dead musician. All destinies are linked and it is up to the reader to make connections.
I’ve read many books like this so other than the narrative of the dead musician, which is brilliant, I found the rest of the novel to be ok. This was a solid read and time passed nicely. Brandon has a good writing style, a bit too Palahniuk at times but it didn’t hinder the reading experience. I’d recommend it to someone who’s just starting to get in this genre.
September 1, 2012
Beautifully written and structured.
Initially it seemed too clever for its own good--the wolf-perspective chapters were kind of, "oh yeah, it's a McSweeny's book, herp"--but Brandon does such a superb job of tying everything together... it's just an impressive piece of work from start-to-almost finish. The ending is a bit perfunctory, though in some ways that's probably for the best, as it may have tried to tie things together too neatly with too much detail about the final fate of coma boy/musical prodigy/god's mouthpiece Soren. The other characters orbiting around Soren, including the wolf, are vivid and compelling.
So yeah, go read it. Now.
Initially it seemed too clever for its own good--the wolf-perspective chapters were kind of, "oh yeah, it's a McSweeny's book, herp"--but Brandon does such a superb job of tying everything together... it's just an impressive piece of work from start-to-almost finish. The ending is a bit perfunctory, though in some ways that's probably for the best, as it may have tried to tie things together too neatly with too much detail about the final fate of coma boy/musical prodigy/god's mouthpiece Soren. The other characters orbiting around Soren, including the wolf, are vivid and compelling.
So yeah, go read it. Now.
November 14, 2013
I'm not usually a fan of mystic realism and this parable seemed stretched at times. A group of disjointed misfits whose stories entwine with the meanderings and symbolic maulings of a wolf, leave the reader in free fall at times. This work was more poetry than narrative and while I appreciated the lyrical qualities I became bored with the journey.
July 2, 2018
Slow, a bit bizarre, glad when it ended.
April 21, 2024
Full of contradictions—sparse and dense, alive and dead, lonely and comforting—like the desert itself
March 24, 2013
Book: A Million Heavens
Author: John Brandon
Published: July 2012 by McSweeney’s, 272 pages
First Line: "The nighttime clouds were slipping across the sky as if summoned."
Genre/Rating: Literary fiction; 3/5 songs, written by the man you loved who died, filling your mind until you can think of nothing else
Review: I am an unabashed John Brandon fan.
His Citrus County was one of my favorite books of last year, and I’m still looking to get my hands on his Arkansas (my library isn’t the best at stocking indie-published novels, and the price tag is still a little steep for my Kindle, but I’m going to break down one of these days. I’m a terrible impulse-buyer when it comes to the Kindle.)
(Also, can we just marvel over this cover? Gorgeous. McSweeney’s really excels at cover art.)
I was so looking forward to A Million Heavens, and after a few initial disappointing chapters, I thought, “it will get better. It just has to hit its stride.”
Unfortunately, it never really did.
Set in New Mexico, it follows, in small, somewhat strange chapters, the events that happen to various townsfolk over a bleak winter. A young prodigy lies in a coma while his father sits by his bedside, helpless. People sit outside in vigil, for various reasons. A woman on the run from her life attempts a new start with a man with a checkered past. A lost young musician mourns the death of the man she loved, which is proving to also be the death of her muse. The mayor of the town tries to find himself through his love for a woman who is possibly off-limits. And a wolf travels through the town, trying in vain to retain his wildness in a town that’s becoming increasingly industrialized and filled with the mystery of humans.
The problem I had was that I cared about very few of the stories/characters. I found myself waiting, somewhat impatiently, for the chapters involving Cecelia, the musician, and her departed love, Reggie (who actually gets a voice and a storyline from the beyond.) They were the two characters who seemed the most fleshed-out, whose fates and outcomes I actually cared about. The rest of them, although not poorly written (Brandon couldn’t write clunky prose if he tried; the man writes beautifully) were…somewhat cardboard. Uninteresting. I was not invested in their stories, in their fates. I was reading to see what happened to Cecelia; if she would redeem herself, if she would find what she was looking for under the New Mexico stars, in the damage she found herself drawn to cause. I was reading to see if Reggie would be able to finally communicate his love for her from beyond, because he’d missed his chance when he was on earth.
I’m not flat-out panning the book. Brandon’s prose is leaps and bounds better than most people’s I read, and I will continue to read his work, and eagerly await what he publishes next. But after the wonder and mystery and magic of Citrus County, I found myself disappointed by this one. I know he’s capable of more and of better. I appreciate that he was trying something different and outside the box, and I like that he’s attempting to evolve; I just don’t think this book worked on all levels.
(Originally published at Insatiable Booksluts)
Author: John Brandon
Published: July 2012 by McSweeney’s, 272 pages
First Line: "The nighttime clouds were slipping across the sky as if summoned."
Genre/Rating: Literary fiction; 3/5 songs, written by the man you loved who died, filling your mind until you can think of nothing else
Review: I am an unabashed John Brandon fan.
His Citrus County was one of my favorite books of last year, and I’m still looking to get my hands on his Arkansas (my library isn’t the best at stocking indie-published novels, and the price tag is still a little steep for my Kindle, but I’m going to break down one of these days. I’m a terrible impulse-buyer when it comes to the Kindle.)
(Also, can we just marvel over this cover? Gorgeous. McSweeney’s really excels at cover art.)
I was so looking forward to A Million Heavens, and after a few initial disappointing chapters, I thought, “it will get better. It just has to hit its stride.”
Unfortunately, it never really did.
Set in New Mexico, it follows, in small, somewhat strange chapters, the events that happen to various townsfolk over a bleak winter. A young prodigy lies in a coma while his father sits by his bedside, helpless. People sit outside in vigil, for various reasons. A woman on the run from her life attempts a new start with a man with a checkered past. A lost young musician mourns the death of the man she loved, which is proving to also be the death of her muse. The mayor of the town tries to find himself through his love for a woman who is possibly off-limits. And a wolf travels through the town, trying in vain to retain his wildness in a town that’s becoming increasingly industrialized and filled with the mystery of humans.
The problem I had was that I cared about very few of the stories/characters. I found myself waiting, somewhat impatiently, for the chapters involving Cecelia, the musician, and her departed love, Reggie (who actually gets a voice and a storyline from the beyond.) They were the two characters who seemed the most fleshed-out, whose fates and outcomes I actually cared about. The rest of them, although not poorly written (Brandon couldn’t write clunky prose if he tried; the man writes beautifully) were…somewhat cardboard. Uninteresting. I was not invested in their stories, in their fates. I was reading to see what happened to Cecelia; if she would redeem herself, if she would find what she was looking for under the New Mexico stars, in the damage she found herself drawn to cause. I was reading to see if Reggie would be able to finally communicate his love for her from beyond, because he’d missed his chance when he was on earth.
I’m not flat-out panning the book. Brandon’s prose is leaps and bounds better than most people’s I read, and I will continue to read his work, and eagerly await what he publishes next. But after the wonder and mystery and magic of Citrus County, I found myself disappointed by this one. I know he’s capable of more and of better. I appreciate that he was trying something different and outside the box, and I like that he’s attempting to evolve; I just don’t think this book worked on all levels.
(Originally published at Insatiable Booksluts)
February 27, 2013
Tentatively 4 stars.
In my mind, I bounced back and forth between 3 and 4 stars as I read. I had 3-star "It's good, but why should I care?" moments and 4-star "Daaaaang this shit is legit" moments, and ultimately the latter won. I think.
Reggie is dead. Soren is in a coma. These are not spoilers, because the back of the book will tell you as much. The book isn't so much about them as it is about everyone around them; the majority of the main characters don't even know Reggie or Soren, but they come together in unexpected, inexplicable, and fascinating ways. The style is part magical realism, part stream of consciousness, and all loveliness.
We hear a little bit from Reggie, the dead guy. He's in a purgatorial rehearsal space, where unseen powers are encouraging him to write music again. His afterlife lyrics migrate to Cecilia's subconscious, and drive her a little crazy. She falls into a bizarre rebellious streak, but no, she's still a good person, guyz. Don't judge.
Cecilia's uncle is Mayor Cabrera, the undersexed widower overseeing a struggling hotel and the dying town of Lofte. His sections are always endearing, and you can't help but root for him.
Completely unrelated to Reggie et al., Dannie the cradle-robber is dating lil' Arn. Well, not really dating him so much as using him for his sperm. Their story is despairing, and even a little fucked up, and ultimately unresolved. Arn's back story doesn't serve a direct purpose in the narrative, but it is thought provoking.
Soren's father is little more than just that: Soren's father. He remains unnamed, defined by his unconscious son, and removed from happiness and vivacity. He is complacent. People walk into his life and walk right out again, and not a single fuck is given.
Most strikingly, there is a wolf. He is slowly gaining human rationality and understanding, and it is driving him to madness. Reggie's music calms him, but he finds it harder and harder to curtail his rage. The author's philosophical musings are largely communicated through this process, so I will let you discover them for yourselves in the actual book. I swear, they comprised the bulk of my 4-star-'wow'-moments-while-reading.
Oh, and there's also a gas station attendant. He likes his life, but wants to wander the desert for a while. Not entirely sure what to make of him.
These are the main characters, if you can even call them that. The characterization makes up the bulk of my 3-star moments. I just couldn't care about them. Sure, their thoughts and actions are visceral and interesting, and John Brandon's prose is simply DIVINE, but... eh. Okay, they're people. People + Wolf. Cool?
The other main 3-star moment: the ending. It was unsurprising, cliched, and a bit saccharine. Or at least, the part that had an ending; the bulk of the story lines seem conspicuously unresolved, which I found really engaging as a reader. I may not care about these people, but what happens to them (or doesn't happen) at the end of the novel brought my rating back to 4 stars. And it shall remain as such. For now.
In my mind, I bounced back and forth between 3 and 4 stars as I read. I had 3-star "It's good, but why should I care?" moments and 4-star "Daaaaang this shit is legit" moments, and ultimately the latter won. I think.
Reggie is dead. Soren is in a coma. These are not spoilers, because the back of the book will tell you as much. The book isn't so much about them as it is about everyone around them; the majority of the main characters don't even know Reggie or Soren, but they come together in unexpected, inexplicable, and fascinating ways. The style is part magical realism, part stream of consciousness, and all loveliness.
We hear a little bit from Reggie, the dead guy. He's in a purgatorial rehearsal space, where unseen powers are encouraging him to write music again. His afterlife lyrics migrate to Cecilia's subconscious, and drive her a little crazy. She falls into a bizarre rebellious streak, but no, she's still a good person, guyz. Don't judge.
Cecilia's uncle is Mayor Cabrera, the undersexed widower overseeing a struggling hotel and the dying town of Lofte. His sections are always endearing, and you can't help but root for him.
Completely unrelated to Reggie et al., Dannie the cradle-robber is dating lil' Arn. Well, not really dating him so much as using him for his sperm. Their story is despairing, and even a little fucked up, and ultimately unresolved. Arn's back story doesn't serve a direct purpose in the narrative, but it is thought provoking.
Soren's father is little more than just that: Soren's father. He remains unnamed, defined by his unconscious son, and removed from happiness and vivacity. He is complacent. People walk into his life and walk right out again, and not a single fuck is given.
Most strikingly, there is a wolf. He is slowly gaining human rationality and understanding, and it is driving him to madness. Reggie's music calms him, but he finds it harder and harder to curtail his rage. The author's philosophical musings are largely communicated through this process, so I will let you discover them for yourselves in the actual book. I swear, they comprised the bulk of my 4-star-'wow'-moments-while-reading.
Oh, and there's also a gas station attendant. He likes his life, but wants to wander the desert for a while. Not entirely sure what to make of him.
These are the main characters, if you can even call them that. The characterization makes up the bulk of my 3-star moments. I just couldn't care about them. Sure, their thoughts and actions are visceral and interesting, and John Brandon's prose is simply DIVINE, but... eh. Okay, they're people. People + Wolf. Cool?
The other main 3-star moment: the ending. It was unsurprising, cliched, and a bit saccharine. Or at least, the part that had an ending; the bulk of the story lines seem conspicuously unresolved, which I found really engaging as a reader. I may not care about these people, but what happens to them (or doesn't happen) at the end of the novel brought my rating back to 4 stars. And it shall remain as such. For now.
September 8, 2016
Cecelia, The Wolf, The Mayor, Reggie, Dannie, Arn, The Gas Station Owner, Soren's Father, The Piano Teacher, The Wolf, Dannie, The Gas Station Owner, Arn, Cecelia, The Mayor, Reggie, Cecelia, The Wolf...these are subheadings cutting up the entire book every two or three pages. These characters all relate to each other but not in a very interesting way. Additionally, each character is referred to in third person by each name above which is tiresome and annoying when you have to keep reading "The Gas Station Owner" every time the author refers to him. Same goes for Soren's Father and The Mayor...don't these people have/deserve real NAMES!?!? Ugh.
Additionally, each character had such a sad, stagnant life. Reggie was dead and in spirit limbo. Cecelia misses Reggie, has a shut-in mother and goes to vigils for a boy in a coma. Soren's father is waiting for him to come out of a coma. Dannie goes to the vigils for Soren, has cut everyone from her life and is trying to get pregnant with Arn. Arn doesn't know his much older girlfriend, Dannie is trying to get knocked up, compulsively lies to Dannie and grew up in abusive foster care. The gas station owner works in a gas station (duh) and wants to take a death walk into the desert. The wolf wants to torture domesticated animals for fun because he's going crazy. The Mayor misses his dead wife and worries his city is financially ruined.
I don't know why I kept reading this as long as I did. Well, no, I do. Each character in this book is written separately from the others which led me to ASSUME that they would all converge and tie in together in a way that would make wonderful sense by the end, which is what encouraged me to keep reading. In the end, they sorta-kinda relate, but not in a way that I found fulfilling. I should've quit while I was ahead. There were a few great lines within these pages, but, most of it was uninteresting filler told from the point of third person...which, as we all know, is a boring as hell way to tell a story. I could kinda understand where the author was trying to go with each character, but by the end it just wasn't worth it.
Additionally, each character had such a sad, stagnant life. Reggie was dead and in spirit limbo. Cecelia misses Reggie, has a shut-in mother and goes to vigils for a boy in a coma. Soren's father is waiting for him to come out of a coma. Dannie goes to the vigils for Soren, has cut everyone from her life and is trying to get pregnant with Arn. Arn doesn't know his much older girlfriend, Dannie is trying to get knocked up, compulsively lies to Dannie and grew up in abusive foster care. The gas station owner works in a gas station (duh) and wants to take a death walk into the desert. The wolf wants to torture domesticated animals for fun because he's going crazy. The Mayor misses his dead wife and worries his city is financially ruined.
I don't know why I kept reading this as long as I did. Well, no, I do. Each character in this book is written separately from the others which led me to ASSUME that they would all converge and tie in together in a way that would make wonderful sense by the end, which is what encouraged me to keep reading. In the end, they sorta-kinda relate, but not in a way that I found fulfilling. I should've quit while I was ahead. There were a few great lines within these pages, but, most of it was uninteresting filler told from the point of third person...which, as we all know, is a boring as hell way to tell a story. I could kinda understand where the author was trying to go with each character, but by the end it just wasn't worth it.
May 16, 2013
"A Million Heavens" follows about a dozen characters as they live their messy lives in and around shitty small towns in New Mexico. Events center around a young boy who currently lies in a coma, having collapsed after playing beautiful, original music out of nowhere. His piano teacher feels guilty. His father is a wreck, refusing to leave the hospital. Legions of residents of the area hold weekly vigils, with mixed motives.
One of these, a young community college student named Cecilia, has also lost a dear friend with musical gifts, and we see her story unfold as she pursues self-destruction, not purely out of rebellion but out of a total loss as to what to do with herself and her housebound mother.
A touch of the supernatural inhabits this novel, not just in the form of the spooky gifts of the somnolent child, but in the form of Cecilia's dead bandmate, who occupies some sort of limbo in the afterlife where he's alternately cajoled and blackmailed into writing new songs from beyond the grave. Another character we follow is a wolf, named Wolf, who tracks the comings and goings of the main character, as haunted by music as the rest of them.
I am a huge fan of "Arkansas," Brandon's first novel. While this one didn't have me crowing about its genius like "Arkansas" did, I still greatly enjoyed it.
Note: Plan on doing a lot of flipping back and forth in the book until you remember who all the characters are, because there are about a dozen, and it takes a while to figure out which ones you have to pay attention to. Keep going, though, even if it feels like work at first. Once you get going, it's a joy to track the progress of everyone from the gas station owner to the mayor/uncle/hotel proprietor.
One of these, a young community college student named Cecilia, has also lost a dear friend with musical gifts, and we see her story unfold as she pursues self-destruction, not purely out of rebellion but out of a total loss as to what to do with herself and her housebound mother.
A touch of the supernatural inhabits this novel, not just in the form of the spooky gifts of the somnolent child, but in the form of Cecilia's dead bandmate, who occupies some sort of limbo in the afterlife where he's alternately cajoled and blackmailed into writing new songs from beyond the grave. Another character we follow is a wolf, named Wolf, who tracks the comings and goings of the main character, as haunted by music as the rest of them.
I am a huge fan of "Arkansas," Brandon's first novel. While this one didn't have me crowing about its genius like "Arkansas" did, I still greatly enjoyed it.
Note: Plan on doing a lot of flipping back and forth in the book until you remember who all the characters are, because there are about a dozen, and it takes a while to figure out which ones you have to pay attention to. Keep going, though, even if it feels like work at first. Once you get going, it's a joy to track the progress of everyone from the gas station owner to the mayor/uncle/hotel proprietor.
January 28, 2015
John Brandon has done an impressive job of carving out a recognizable style with only a few books to his credit. The Brandon style has a very strong sense of place, though "A Million Heavens" is based in the New Mexico desert rather than the sprawl of northern Florida that was the home for "Citrus County" and several of his short stories. Brandon's books have a multitude of perspectives rather than a single leading voice. These characters are nearly all united by a sense of dissatisfaction or yearning.
The strength of "A Million Heavens" is largely derived from Brandon's characters. He manages to create characters across ages and social strata that are all wholly believable. Part of what allows him to accomplish this is his strength with dialogue. While tragedy is behind the unhappiness of these characters Brandon is wise to avoid the sentimentality and focus instead on the low grade day to day manifestations of unhappiness. These characters are more troubled by lives that have gotten off track for reasons that are somewhat unclear than they are by the bigger tragedies.
"A Million Heavens" is a bold leap for a young writer who previously wrote about characters near his own age and from his home turf. Brandon's willingness to experiment and take risks is what gets him into trouble here. One of the characters is a wolf and the wolf chapters work for a time as a sort of distant narrator, but when the chapters begin talking about the wolf's angst the conceit falls apart. Another of the characters is in a sort of heaven/purgatory and Brandon is unable to make this come off the way he seems to have intended. I'm willing to forgive him these missteps, because on the whole the book still suceeds.
The strength of "A Million Heavens" is largely derived from Brandon's characters. He manages to create characters across ages and social strata that are all wholly believable. Part of what allows him to accomplish this is his strength with dialogue. While tragedy is behind the unhappiness of these characters Brandon is wise to avoid the sentimentality and focus instead on the low grade day to day manifestations of unhappiness. These characters are more troubled by lives that have gotten off track for reasons that are somewhat unclear than they are by the bigger tragedies.
"A Million Heavens" is a bold leap for a young writer who previously wrote about characters near his own age and from his home turf. Brandon's willingness to experiment and take risks is what gets him into trouble here. One of the characters is a wolf and the wolf chapters work for a time as a sort of distant narrator, but when the chapters begin talking about the wolf's angst the conceit falls apart. Another of the characters is in a sort of heaven/purgatory and Brandon is unable to make this come off the way he seems to have intended. I'm willing to forgive him these missteps, because on the whole the book still suceeds.
January 19, 2014
If John Brandon writes like anyone, he writes like Kurt Vonnegut. The content is completely different, of course, but the structure of the sentence is remarkably similar. Short, simple sentences, often beginning with the name of a character, full of matter-of-fact detail, and frequent little bursts of philosophy.
My first book by Brandon was Citrus County, and while that one was a page-turner, this one has very low tension. If it were a movie, it would be one of those indie flicks with lingering camera shots of squinty-eyed actors sitting in a small town gazing meaningfully out a window or doing something poetic by themselves. This book has lots of little spurts of plot growing all over the place but in the end it is (to me) an atmospheric work.
Not that there's anything wrong with that. Brandon has gotten more adept at deftly telling a lot of stories at once. There are many characters here and he cuts back and forth between them a lot. That and the easy-reading descriptions make reading this book about as easy as watching television, except in this case you have the vague sense that someone wiser than you is trying to get something across about people, and about hope, and about waiting. No morals or philosophizing here, just a few hundred pages of meditation.
I think Brandon could do all this and write a page-turner, too (because he did, in fact, do all this and write a page-turner too) so I'm only giving this three stars. But it's not because I'm not a fan of Mr. Brandon's. I'm down to one unread book by him, and I'm going to savor it.
My first book by Brandon was Citrus County, and while that one was a page-turner, this one has very low tension. If it were a movie, it would be one of those indie flicks with lingering camera shots of squinty-eyed actors sitting in a small town gazing meaningfully out a window or doing something poetic by themselves. This book has lots of little spurts of plot growing all over the place but in the end it is (to me) an atmospheric work.
Not that there's anything wrong with that. Brandon has gotten more adept at deftly telling a lot of stories at once. There are many characters here and he cuts back and forth between them a lot. That and the easy-reading descriptions make reading this book about as easy as watching television, except in this case you have the vague sense that someone wiser than you is trying to get something across about people, and about hope, and about waiting. No morals or philosophizing here, just a few hundred pages of meditation.
I think Brandon could do all this and write a page-turner, too (because he did, in fact, do all this and write a page-turner too) so I'm only giving this three stars. But it's not because I'm not a fan of Mr. Brandon's. I'm down to one unread book by him, and I'm going to savor it.
June 21, 2013
Although I puzzled through much of this book wondering where it was going and how it would tie its various and seemingly unrelated story lines together, I ended up loving where it went and ultimately loving the book itself.
John Brandon is a good solid writer and certainly not someone unfamiliar with the oddities of the human condition; Citrus County proved that. Phrases jump out and meld together seamlessly. There were a number of times I found myself stopping and thinking, "now that's a really nice sentence/description, etc...".
The setting, a tiny New Mexico town that finds itself on the brink of going broke becomes just as important to the book as the characters. The characters; and I call them characters because each in his/here way is a protagonist of their own story, although not necessarily the book, became more interesting to me as the book developed and to me that's an indication of good writing.
If you decide to read this, go slowly. Take your time and (at the risk of sounding trite) enjoy the trip...
John Brandon is a good solid writer and certainly not someone unfamiliar with the oddities of the human condition; Citrus County proved that. Phrases jump out and meld together seamlessly. There were a number of times I found myself stopping and thinking, "now that's a really nice sentence/description, etc...".
The setting, a tiny New Mexico town that finds itself on the brink of going broke becomes just as important to the book as the characters. The characters; and I call them characters because each in his/here way is a protagonist of their own story, although not necessarily the book, became more interesting to me as the book developed and to me that's an indication of good writing.
If you decide to read this, go slowly. Take your time and (at the risk of sounding trite) enjoy the trip...
March 16, 2015
Went into this book having no expectations and really liked it. I was intrigued by all the characters and their intertwined stories. Would recommend it to anyone who loves good characters and stories.
June 13, 2014
I was prepared not to like this very much. The idea of the supernatural, after-life aspect of the book didn't appeal to me much. In the end, though, I loved it like the rest of Brandon's books. I can see why someone might consider the book "slow", but in the end it's definitely worth it.
July 28, 2012
Characters I cared for mired in the stew of many I did not. A couple of them propelled me onward, and I finished not exactly sorry I stuck it out. A new experience.
July 22, 2012
Wonderful.
Tis a rare gift to make you feel less alone and much, much lonelier.
January 25, 2015
1.5 stars. Great cover, but sadly, a rather pointless, predictable novel filled with characters that all sounded the same.
April 18, 2025
This is my second reading - the first being maybe 10 years ago. I loved it.
As Reggie was in a kind of purgatory after his death, so were the vigilars in a kind of living purgatory- one of emotional isolation unable or unwilling to connect with other people and move on in their lives.
This changes as Reggie begins to compose his music. He seems to recognize he is a conduit. Cecelia and, by way of Cecelia, the wolf are the receivers. Soren seems to be the intermediary as he lies in a coma neither really living or dead. He also seems to be the attractant bringing the vigilars together and yet they still hold themselves apart from one another.
Cecelia and the wolf- the receivers.
They both become needlessly destructive which provides no resolution to either. Cecelia against her prior bandmate who she feels stole Reggie’s songs after his death. The wolf against tame animals and himself which he comes to despise- killing them, but not eating them all the while starving while waiting for the next song.
The wolf is an interesting element in the story. Why is the wolf in the story?
My thought is that the wolf represents the natural world, wild animals, living instinctively, inherited memory. He is a desert creature and the desert is as much a character in the story as any other character - or more so. As the wolf becomes drawn to Cecelia and to Reggie’s songs, the wolf gains “knowledge” and chooses to ignore his instincts which is when he starts to physically deteriorate and retaliate against tame animals.
The vigilars begin to proactively engage in their lives once Reggie accepts and becomes a pure conduit for what may be his last song before he is allowed to move on to whatever comes next. The song is an expression of pure love.
While Cecelia is receiving this song she makes the decision to visit Soren for the first time in the hospital. The song comes thru Cecelia and she starts humming. The song is the key that unblocks Soren and he wakes.
What happens to the wolf isn’t laid out, but I think the implication is that after the gas station owner freely offers his flesh to the wolf and the wolf accepts and eats, the wolf is released back to the natural world- like Adam and Eve and the apple, but in reverse. There is also an undertone of reparation to the natural world which humans are still subject to.
Christianity isn’t a theme in the book- at least not overtly, but I think an argument could be made.
The ending isn’t comprised of good feelings, fireworks and revelations. It is comprised of acceptance of an imperfect world and imperfect people learning to connect and take chances on one another.
As Reggie was in a kind of purgatory after his death, so were the vigilars in a kind of living purgatory- one of emotional isolation unable or unwilling to connect with other people and move on in their lives.
This changes as Reggie begins to compose his music. He seems to recognize he is a conduit. Cecelia and, by way of Cecelia, the wolf are the receivers. Soren seems to be the intermediary as he lies in a coma neither really living or dead. He also seems to be the attractant bringing the vigilars together and yet they still hold themselves apart from one another.
Cecelia and the wolf- the receivers.
They both become needlessly destructive which provides no resolution to either. Cecelia against her prior bandmate who she feels stole Reggie’s songs after his death. The wolf against tame animals and himself which he comes to despise- killing them, but not eating them all the while starving while waiting for the next song.
The wolf is an interesting element in the story. Why is the wolf in the story?
My thought is that the wolf represents the natural world, wild animals, living instinctively, inherited memory. He is a desert creature and the desert is as much a character in the story as any other character - or more so. As the wolf becomes drawn to Cecelia and to Reggie’s songs, the wolf gains “knowledge” and chooses to ignore his instincts which is when he starts to physically deteriorate and retaliate against tame animals.
The vigilars begin to proactively engage in their lives once Reggie accepts and becomes a pure conduit for what may be his last song before he is allowed to move on to whatever comes next. The song is an expression of pure love.
While Cecelia is receiving this song she makes the decision to visit Soren for the first time in the hospital. The song comes thru Cecelia and she starts humming. The song is the key that unblocks Soren and he wakes.
What happens to the wolf isn’t laid out, but I think the implication is that after the gas station owner freely offers his flesh to the wolf and the wolf accepts and eats, the wolf is released back to the natural world- like Adam and Eve and the apple, but in reverse. There is also an undertone of reparation to the natural world which humans are still subject to.
Christianity isn’t a theme in the book- at least not overtly, but I think an argument could be made.
The ending isn’t comprised of good feelings, fireworks and revelations. It is comprised of acceptance of an imperfect world and imperfect people learning to connect and take chances on one another.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 28, 2019
3
This book is about loss and life and your reaction to both. Following a recently divorced woman, a tragic teenaged girl, a mayor of a failing town, the father of a possible piano prodigy now in a coma, a wolf losing his place in the world, a dead boy forced to write music, and many more, it sheds light on the arcs of life without seeming to care much if the reader follows.
I liked this book in general. I think the characters were interesting, particularly Arn and Reggie, but it just wasn't compelling. I think part of that was the multitude of characters and the way they were painstakingly forced to connect. It felt too big, in too small a thing. I'm not saying I wanted more story, I just wanted one that was able to breathe.
It felt unsatisfying. A lot of these arcs never finished, and the one (of two) that did truly felt as if it had finished in a way that felt unearned and uninteresting. This, to me, is one of those stories written to say "things are bad sometimes, and we need to be realistic" which, a lot of the time, is boring and needlessly dreary or edgy. It toed the line on that quite a bit, and the ending made me feel as if it lost its way entirely.
Good writing, some interesting thoughts, but I was pretty much ready to be done reading it by the halfway point.
This book is about loss and life and your reaction to both. Following a recently divorced woman, a tragic teenaged girl, a mayor of a failing town, the father of a possible piano prodigy now in a coma, a wolf losing his place in the world, a dead boy forced to write music, and many more, it sheds light on the arcs of life without seeming to care much if the reader follows.
I liked this book in general. I think the characters were interesting, particularly Arn and Reggie, but it just wasn't compelling. I think part of that was the multitude of characters and the way they were painstakingly forced to connect. It felt too big, in too small a thing. I'm not saying I wanted more story, I just wanted one that was able to breathe.
It felt unsatisfying. A lot of these arcs never finished, and the one (of two) that did truly felt as if it had finished in a way that felt unearned and uninteresting. This, to me, is one of those stories written to say "things are bad sometimes, and we need to be realistic" which, a lot of the time, is boring and needlessly dreary or edgy. It toed the line on that quite a bit, and the ending made me feel as if it lost its way entirely.
Good writing, some interesting thoughts, but I was pretty much ready to be done reading it by the halfway point.
March 16, 2019
I'm a little confused about this one. By all accounts, it was a book I should have liked. Character-driven, with an interesting premise. Takes place in the American Southwest. The characters interweave in an interesting way. All-in-all, I think I would really like writing an analysis of this book. But I just didn't really enjoy reading it. I think I've narrowed it down to the characters. Like other Character-driven novels, it feels very entrenched in the characters rather than the plot, and it's slow-moving, especially compared to a plot-driven story. But a character-driven novel only works when the reader is interested in what happens to the characters. And I just didn't care about any of these people. I found them boring. So I didn't really want to go along with them for the ride. I read to the end so I could find out what happened with the music, but even the ending was a little bit of a let down for me. Like the author thought that revealing the connection between Soren and Reggie was going to be a big surprise, when it was actually quite obvious from the beginning. It just feels like it took 300 (long, slow) pages to hear what I already knew.
March 10, 2018
There’s quiet gathering of people in a parking lot outside an Albuquerque hospital clinic. A child piano prodigy lies in a coma. There’s a “motley group” of people, loosely connected, in a struggling nearby town of Loft, woven together by a wandering wolf.
I might have quit when I got into the book, but I was invested enough to read on to see how this almost-surreal story would connect. Some connections were made, but couldn’t detect others. I bet my former high school teacher would be all over its significance, but I wasn’t there.
When I read a book, I keep my eye out for a mentioning of the book title. I assume that an author has assigned significance to it. I found:
“A million heavens waited, a million people scuffling around the desert hoping not to see their heaven too soon, failing to believe in the afterlives is that awaited them and would have them in time, whether they kicked and screamed or close their eyes and sighed, whether they tried to do good and could not or tried to do bad and succeeded”
I might have quit when I got into the book, but I was invested enough to read on to see how this almost-surreal story would connect. Some connections were made, but couldn’t detect others. I bet my former high school teacher would be all over its significance, but I wasn’t there.
When I read a book, I keep my eye out for a mentioning of the book title. I assume that an author has assigned significance to it. I found:
“A million heavens waited, a million people scuffling around the desert hoping not to see their heaven too soon, failing to believe in the afterlives is that awaited them and would have them in time, whether they kicked and screamed or close their eyes and sighed, whether they tried to do good and could not or tried to do bad and succeeded”
April 11, 2019
I really thought I was going to like this book, and was quietly disappointed. The prose is beautiful in some parts, the characters well drawn, the setting interesting... and yet it just failed to lift off the page. The number of narrators only served to take me out of the story, even though they were all interesting in their own right. The stories didn't seem to come together in any sort of satisfying way at the end, and the number of narrators didn't seem earned. It took me almost a month to read, although it's relatively short, because I felt no pull to continue.
That being said, the prose is strong, and some of the characters/stories are still percolating around my brain. But the pacing killed it.
That being said, the prose is strong, and some of the characters/stories are still percolating around my brain. But the pacing killed it.
September 24, 2023
Sadly, one of those books for me that I couldn't wait for it to be over. Not that it is badly written or even without some interesting parts, but I felt it was like a series of short stories that someone suggested he turn into a novel and that then the stories were subdivided and interspersed amongst each other, and there just didn't seem to be much point to it all. Like a MFA book gone amuck. I'm sure that some readers may enjoy it, and maybe it is just me missing his message (assuming there was one), but I am not now disposed to try anything else by him, at least right away. I really didn't like the characters, the choice to not name several of them. Good thing I am not a critic for some magazine.
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