Jonas in Frames: an epic

by Chris Hutchinson

Jonas in Frames is [choose one]: A) a series of loosely connected narrative fragments written in poetic prose; B) a maze of postcard stories bursting with literary in-jokes; C) a delicate sequence of prose poems interspersed with narrative interludes; or D) haunted by the ghost of Samuel Beckett. In its esoteric glimpse into the disassociated, Jonas in Frames contorts time and space. Rootless, nostalgic, socially inept, Jonas is the modern questless hero, an exemplar of generational anxiety eternally on the brink of pitching into a graveyard spin. A volatile amalgamation of identity crisis, fitful employment, and fanciful poetic imaginings delivers Jonas from sterile offices to anarchist squats, from skull-shattering saloons to faux-edgy hipstervilles and back again to capital-N Nowhere. As Jonas navigates an onslaught of geographical, mental, and temporal turbulence, his lives collide, splinter, and too often shatter. Jonas in Frames does and does not cohere. Its sense is clandestine. Its form is fractal.

198 pages, Paperback

First published March 31, 2014

Reviews

[Ainsley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel's style and subject would not, as a rule, appeal to me, but the cover compelled me to pick it up, and I'm glad I did. I automatically love any author who works in a reference to snozzberries.