The Loom of Ruin

by Sam McPheeters

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.

Genres: Fiction, Ebooks, Punk, Contemporary

262 pages, Paperback

First published March 15, 2012

About the author

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 seventeen times across North America, Europe, and Japan. Since 2009, he has written for Apology, Chicago Reader, Criterion, Vice, and The Village Voice, among others.

Reviews

[Greg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hello shit, this is my review for Loom of Ruin so suck my fucking lizard*

Wait, let me start over.....

Hello, SHIT, this is my review for Loom of Ruin so suck my fucking lizard.

Sam McPheeters wrote a novel! And it's really good, so I'm not going to feel like a stooge blabbing on about a novel that I secretly think is shitty but because I'm in awe of the author I'm just going to go on like a retarded fanboy with his fingers stuck on the html tags that make words bold.

Sam McPheeters was the singer of Born Against (and later Mens Recovery Project, and part of some other projects too).** One of my regrets in the punk part of my life was even though I lived only thirty miles from Albany and a hundred and eighty miles from New York City I spent a few years totally unaware of the DIY Hardcore world, and only knew Albany to be a place where chugga-chugg tough guy bands were strumming away on the E-minor chord and throat growling about jock-esque shit while punching and kickboxing in the crowd. If I'd been more aware of my sort of immediate surroundings I might have had a chance to see Born Against. I never did, but I was a co-worker and friend with someone who was dubbed Sam McPheeters official best-friend by some people.

I was going to gush about Born Against and how awesome they were. They were but this is a review for a book and not a band the author was in twenty years ago. Born Against still sound good today, though. That is if you like screaming political hardcore music.

One more Born Against regret, my first band (first band that played shows, as opposed to just being a working concept with friends) toyed around with doing a cover a "Mary and Child"***, we were going to play it at a show in Plattsburgh and I was supposed to sing for it, I was really looking forward to flailing around screaming Mary and probably hurting myself, at the last minute though we decided against going through with it. I'm convinced it would have been one of the best performances of my musical career.

(Here I was going to make mention that the Born Against Patch I had on my backpack was the cause of a high amount of 'annoyance' to people who were offended by the image of some boy scout types marching with a flag and the words "kill, kill, kill" next to them. I never understood why this patch angered some people, (along with my Kill the Man Who Questions t-shirt (which just said Kill the Man Who Questions)) it was something that I got a fair amount of shit for where normally I never got shit for the messages or images on other patches or t-shirts, but anyway I couldn't find a picture of the patch online, but I saw this:



What a fucking show!! I'm fairly jealous of the couple of hundred people who were probably at this show).

Anyway, the book.

The book centers around Trang Yang, an Hmong immigrant living in Los Angeles. When he first arrived in LA he got caught up in Mexican Rights rally and got accidently clubbed by LA's finest. A few years later on the eve of 9/11 he caught a stray bullet in the head from another of LA's finest. The bullet did a Phineas Gage to him, severing part of his frontal lobe and leaving him with relatively unharmed but living now in a state of constant anger and rage. He's an angry man prone to violence who owns a string of Chevron gas stations and is officially allowed to do pretty much anything he wants because the LAPD has a hands off policy on him because of their previous two accidents with him. Trang is annoyed by pretty much everything that one would find annoying in the world, inconsiderate people, the LA Lakers, grandstanding leftists who pretend they are priests, and just others in general with the things they do. He's quite absurd and frequently hilarious in his reactions to the people around him.

"Trang had set out to that afternoon to kill the Los Angeles Lakers. Two hours earlier, he'd stopped at his Imperial Highway station and discovered on of their stickers on a Subaru. After punching out the Filipino family inside, a simple idea had occurred to him. Why not go to the root of the problem? He hated the Lakers as he'd hatted little else; hated the grandstanding, the purple and gold crassness, the overfed arrogance, the rap that celebrated them from every other passing car. The team offered everything he despised about white people and black people in one small, killable assemblage. Enough was enough."

Armed with the machete he uses to protect his gas station from people who are coming to steal his gas he heads off to kill the Lakers (spoiler? He doesn't actually kill them, he gets sidetracked). His rage is like a top spinning around the story, colliding and bringing all of the other characters and events together with an apocalyptic fury.

Trang is at the center of the story, but he isn't really the center of attention. His actions cause things to happen but really only so much could be done with a character who speaks almost no English and only has one emotion. He's looming always in the background, but it's the assortment of other characters who really make up the story. Some of these characters appear briefly, some die violently a few paragraphs after they are introduced, some are genuinely famous people making little cameos, and some are fairly obvious caricatures for real people or at least real types of people. The easy thing to do when you're writing something that is at least vaguely political is to just lampoon and take cheap shots at the other side and in this book there are the occasional shots at right-wingers, but most of the lampooning going on here is aimed at the left, at the Prius drivers and the community activists, the ironic racists and well, liberals in general. One of the more likable characters in the book turns out to be a Republican, and well it's sort of what had made Born Against so great, yeah they had songs and mocked what was awful about the Right or the system or whatever you want to call it, but they spent a lot of their energy on 'the scene' and their side of the political spectrum.

The book spirals out from Trang as a violent and almost joyful satirical march towards total destruction. It's not the sort of book that is probably going to be loved by everyone, but it's really fucking good, seriously. I'm not just saying that because of my ongoing Sam McPheeters fascination. It's the type of book that fans of Bizarro sorts of books would really enjoy, it's the kind of 'punk' novel that you kind of hope novels will turn out to be but usually fail to deliver on. This might just be one of the most fun portrayals of the world coming to end.

Sorry, if this review is a little disjointed, I've been working on it on and off for weeks now. I keep deleting parts, adding other parts, feeling embarrassed at my gushing and then bored with what I had previously written. I want this review to stop taunting from my computer's desktop, so I'm going to just go with whatever is already written, and maybe, just maybe someone will think this review is good enough to get them to buy this book!

*This would be an appropiation of the first track, "Neil", off of Born Against's "The Rebel Sound of Shit and Failure" 'best-of' CD, the original is bassist Neil Burke saying, "Hello shit, we're Born Against so suck my fucking lizard".

** He was also once in the audience of the Montel Williams show and got to be one of the people who got the microphone, and was a caller for the Phil Donahue show (I don't know of any video footage on the internet of it, but it was sampled into a Born Against 'song' (The Sam McPheeters part starts around 3:20).

***This wasn't my favorite Born Against song. "Half Mast" was.

[Keith Rosson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Holy lord, I loved this book. Irreverent, intricately plotted, smart, funny, and just relentlessly, manically paced. McPheeters was the voice behind HC pioneers BORN AGAINST. Turns out he's a deadpan hilarious novelist, too. Recommended.

[Ben Manners · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fast, chaotic, bizarre, and fun – breaking its 262 pages into over one hundred chapter-bursts of wry cynicism, corporate minutia, human error, and casual mayhem; McPheeters' story structure is the literary answer to power-violence (heyoooooo... shoptalk).

Intersecting all lines of race and class, while gleefully juxtaposing the storylines of the absurdly naive with the ruthlessly ambitious with the batshit crazy with everyone in-between, McPheeters defines all his characters by their flaws, but (countless acts of extreme violence notwithstanding) never comes off as condescending or cruel to them; never outright contemptuous: nobody is spared being the butt of the larger joke, because of course it is *all* a joke.

One could argue McPheeters has bitten off more than he can chew with this over-saturation of frantic Los Angelinos – many serving as one-dimensional strawmen, disappearing as quickly as they're introduced – and while some story arcs ultimately trail off into the smog, you can't say he doesn't give his readers closure by the end. That closure may be mashed into our faces with an open palm, but we get it.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have so many mixed feelings about this - on one hand it is really funny at parts and witty in others, but it is rife with product placement and a main character that borders on offensive. I doubt if this was written by any one other than Sam McPheeters, I would have stuck with it. But as a new Sam McPheeters project it is a strange departure, as if he is attempting to kick in the automatic doors of mainstream acceptance. To accomplish this stretch toward careerism, McPheeters aspires to be a pulp humorist, a lowbrow Thomas Pynchon, and in the end just an excuse to make a Black Sabbath joke.

In the end, I really liked the Trang Yeng, the main character who is an untouchable Chevron owner with a bullet damaged rage brain. McPheeters does keep the story going, and there are some nice people in the story, but nothing really lived up to the vivid originality I expected.

Plus all the corporate name dropping really rubbed me the wrong, wrong way.

[Jason · Rating 5 out of 5]

So Sam McPheeters is apparently some music guy that I would care about if I didn't only listen to totally brootal metal. So I'm ignoring the few little glitches that should really bump this down to four stars, because he's a musician and he gets a bonus star just for being able to read and write.

This book needs to be adapted into a TV series yesterday. It's a modern, personal, egoistic, petty version of Dr. Strangelove, and it gave me a wicked Armageddogasm.

[Eli J · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a trip. The summary on the back does NOT do it justice.

The first few chapters make it seem like The Loom of Ruin is going to be a crime/corporate thriller. Then McPheeters introduces Satan as a character.

Throughout my reading I was strongly reminded of Good Omens, and not just because of the biblical tilt. McPheeters writes from the perspective of at least a dozen characters, all of whose stories tie in to each others constantly. At first it was worrying but he does a phenomenal job of giving each an entirely recognizable personality. I didn't find myself losing track of who was who or who was doing what once.

In addition, the experience of reading this book was like watching a Rube Goldberg machine. Every action within the story is triggered by a prior action. Even the first actions one reads about are revealed to be triggered as well. I've never read anything quite this ambitious that turned out so fluid.

My one nitpick is that as a reader I didn't quite feel independent. I was very much along for the ride, and while the ride was undeniably enjoyable and unique, I believe throwing in some foreshadowing or a couple more clues so that one could figure out the end result of the Rube Goldberg machine could have been rewarding.

Barring that, however, The Loom of Ruin is a funny, action-packed, subversive story that really just flies by before you know it.

I give it 4 Chevrons out of 5 walruses.

[Rev. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had a friend recommend this book to me years ago, and I think it was in reference to something that I was writing. If my brain constructed that, it's easy to see why - this is a lot like something that I was writing (and may rewrite at some point.) In any event, I really, really liked this. The wordsmithing in this has some great moments, but mostly, this is an idea book. This is a scene book. I feel like McPheeters put together some of the most outrageous scenes he could think of, and then drew lines that made some sort of sense between them.
The title is appropriate in that this is a complex quilt of plot threads arcing back and forth across each other in a way that, if not entirely believable, at least makes sense and doesn't feel any more absurd than the author probably intended. I think the only reason that I didn't give this one a five star review is simply that it's so short. Though it ends... uh... with a lot of finality, I feel like he could have done even more with it, as complicated as it already is. It also felt a little bit too cute at times, if that makes sense.
Anyway, yes. 4/5 - would recommend this to fans of Kurt Vonnegut and, maybe, Tom Robbins.

[Seth Mattei · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of those books that came into my life right when I needed it to and for that reason alone, it will probably remain among my favorite novels until I finally shrug off of this absurd mortal coil.

Sam McPheeters fucking gets it. His latest book, Mutations: The Many Strange Faces of Hardcore Punk is the best book on punk I’ve ever read, and I’ve been searching for the perfect punk book since I read Please Kill Me upon its release when I was 11. Mutations’ back cover contained blurbs about this maniac’s debut novel, The Loom of Ruin and I knew I had to read it. Alas, it’s the real deal: violent, hilarious, offensively American and written by a white guy self-aware enough to know he’s not the only kid in our proverbial ethno-cultural sandbox.

I read this book in the throes of heartache, anxiety attacks, and Covid/election uncertainty and some days it was the only thing that made me smile. You should read it, too.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved it. It's weird and absurd but in a way that I totally got into. Trang Yang is a very angry man. He got a bullet in his brain which caused damage and left him irrationally angry and off kilter. But he is a very good gas station man and owns many franchises. His family is looking for him, the Chevron people want to know why he's so successful, the LAPD has granted him near immunity due to the bullet they accidently put in him. So his ranging psychopathic tendencies go on and his employees either run scared or figure out how to shield him from the things that will set him off, or shield themselves from his wrath. Meanwhile many characters are interwoven around him and everything is getting more and more intense and off the hook and it feels like WW3 is coming and maybe it is. I was left with a number of questions, but I enjoyed the ride, thoroughly.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Slow at times, but an end worth getting to

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.

[Gregory Collins · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was so much fun.

[Jerrold E. Reinstein · Rating 5 out of 5]

Apocalypse Now

Swiftian brutal farce propelled by brilliant observation of the contemporary rush and stumble to planetary disaster. A carefully crafted tapestry

[Jason Kron · Rating 5 out of 5]

A damn clever book with Vonnegut written all over it.

[Guiltyofbeingmike · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wish there was a 4.5 stars. Felt fun but not engaging in parts, but if you're unsure if you want to finish, you should.

[Kasey Auld · Rating 5 out of 5]

loved. chaotic in the best way and was always moving. never bored. so good. slay.

[Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.6 - A weird little chaotic book. Read this if you're an unapologetically angry person.

[Scot · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow, this book was amazing. I had previously read McPheeters short story split book with Jesse from Op Ivy and loved it (far more than Jesse's story which was just odd at best) but it was just enough to whet my appetite and hunger for a full length novel. So I jumped into this one ready to be floored. This book delivers from page one. Written in small short chapters, each one focusing on the myriad intertwining characters, the book reads like a Tarantino film. These small bite chapters ratchet up the suspense until it is ready to burst. The characters are fleshed out just enough for you to understand how they fit into the big picture and how their lives will intersect at one point or another as befits the needs of the story. There is horror, violence, comedy, love, betrayal, supernatural elements and so much more interspersed throughout the storyline and the characters themselves, all revolving around the main character - Trang, who is a gas station owner who has off the charts anger levels directed at everyone and everything. The people whose lives are affected are FBI agents, low level drug dealers, washed up movie stars, private eyes, Satan? and so much more. Just when you think the plot line could not handle any more tangents or characters no matter how large or small, a new one is introduced to spin the story off in a new direction adding another level of complexity. I don't want to add any spoilers, so just know that this is a quick read and completely and totally engrossing from start to finish.
My only reasoning behind not giving this five stars, is that the ending, however spectacular and actually fitting within the storyline, is pretty grandiose, perhaps a bit too much so.

[ABC Group · Rating 4 out of 5]

When rock folks write books it typically reminds me of actors who announce their new record release. I immediately tend to scoff and think this is a bad idea. I firmly stand corrected with Loom of Ruin.

McPheeters has created a crazy cast of characters, all of which are wildly neurotic, but completely hysterical. Loom of Ruin is a very funny book. Sam's writing is very stripped down. There's no self indulgence in his prose, but the world he has created is anything but boring.

Trang Yang just might be the angriest man alive. He owns a fleet of Chevron gas stations in the LA area and he treats his customers with sheer disgust, but somehow, he's the most successful franchisee in the business.

Through a series of tragedies, Trang has become a cenobitic gas peddler that draws the attention of the Chevron corporation. He's under attack and investigation. He employs childhood stars, teenage and kids and loveable Titus. Trang has his own sense of right and loyalty.

For those who get in his way...beware. His wrath is bountiful and Chevron is after his business model. No one knows what makes him/it tick, but Sam's story unfolds the lives of many unique characters obsessed with themselves and Trang Yang.

McPheeters' ability to draw the Los Angeles landscape through such an odd group of folks is quite entertaining. This book is not good for narrative written by a rock dude. It's a great novel that happens to be written by Sam McPheeters.

To other naysayers, swallow your pride and enjoy this book. It's worth every minute you invest in it.

[christopher · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novel is really entertaining and hilarious, but I don't know if I would call it good. It's more a collection of quirky, but not deeply developed characters trapped in a web of distant connections and coincidences than an actual novel. I like Sam McPheeters' writing in general and was looking forward to this book for awhile, but thought he could have done better. It's a quick read and it's hilarious, so I guess I would recommend reading it, but I was hoping for something with more depth. The one thing I did really like about this book was the setting. It's the one book I know where it's set entirely in "non places" like gas stations, freeways, and corporate offices and it conveys the empty and plastic feel of these places without really beating the reader over the head with it either. Other novels I've read have tried and failed at this. Looking forward to McPheeters next novel and his new general interest magazine that he's editing called Exploded View which is due out in the fall.

[Abraham Lopez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Almost undefinable in its scope, imagination, and brutal humor/social commentary. McPheeters' style is his own, and he plows through his narrative like a methhead on a bulldozer. The short and relentless chapters, switching from one character's vantage to another can be dizzying, and makes the book all the more impressive in fitting in all the arcs together almost seamlessly. I can't say that this is a perfect book (there are not 1/2 stars to be given, so I rounded up), but it is damn close. I enjoyed the originality of the story, and will be re-reading this book in the near future as I am apt to do with an ever-expanding list of books that do not disappoint and bring something new with every fresh go-round.

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is insane. One of the best, and most outrageous, endings I have ever read. Set in Los Angeles in the modern age the novel follows a host of characters involved in the oil industry from gas station attendants to corporate fatcats to Obama to the Devil. While some characters matter more than others, the book has no central protagonist (though maybe Trang is our central antagonist) but instead weaves together the narratives of various lives in both expected and suprising ways. Though slow to get going, a few chapters in and this book reads like a nihilistic action movie.

[Clark · Rating 3 out of 5]

The highest of airport literature ever writ. Essentially a scathing lampoon of airport literature readership; I can easily imagine all twelve hundred characters in this book having picked up and put down a copy of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo at some point.

I caught two typos in my copy. However I still have high hopes for Mugger Books. Looking forward to what comes next because this one was a ton of fun.

[Kellz · Rating 4 out of 5]

this had a cast of thousands, whose stories all intersect in some way... and this is something that i love. the protesters i found a bit unbelievable but i loved the fireballs and the absolute chaos of the ending. in a future edition, i would love illustrations by McPheeters; i very much like the cover artwork.

[Brendan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book, and I can't wait to read it again. I've read plenty of books written by musicians I admire, and most don't amount to much. The Loom of Ruin, however, crackles and hums with the blackest of humor. As the rapid fire chapters and rather large cast of characters built toward the incendiary conclusion, I found myself laughing out loud many times. Great book.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little bloated at points and (purposefully?) heavy-handed in a lot of respects, especially the rampant product placement aspect, but overall I thought this was pretty alright. The structure makes it hard to develop any of the characters, but the main plot threads were interesting enough and it ends with a Black Sabbath lyric, so I really can't hate it.

[Bekka · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun read! Characters under developed & coincidences within the plot are strained. But its very enjoyable as I knew it would be. Definitely recommend for anyone who can suspend picking things apart and just enjoy the ride.

[J Galligan · Rating 5 out of 5]

DOES McPHEETERS STACK UP?
In this author’s opinion, definitely.
___________________________________

Jan Galligan, Santa Olaya, PR


Full review here:
http://file-magazine.com/features/boo...

[G. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This reminds me of Vonnegut. I read it once, maybe twice a year, to just round out the list of books and ensure there's something perfect on it. It's perfect. I don't care what your barometer for taste is, because mine is good, and this is great. Enjoy.

[Shaine Edwards · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hilarious, angry book. If you're familiar with McPheeters' history in HC and music reviews you have a decent idea of what to expect. Funny, scathing writing with the occasional elegant turn of phrase. Laughed the whole way through this shit.

[Janelle Corr · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best book I've read in ages! Not one single dull moment. Best ending ever.