Affair

by Nick Stokes

Affair is a novel by Nick Stokes. A man who collects sticks and gathers stones has an affair with a woman in the woods and struggles to return to his wife. An author writes about a man having an affair in order to destroy the man and discover who he is. The two stories are woven and inextricable. Affair is influenced by magical realism, surrealism, absurdism, postmodernism, modernism, post-postmodernism, pre-modernism, realism, organisms, and ismism. Affair was first serialized by The Seattle Star from 2012-2014.

From Affair: "I think to take off my ring and hang it on the light switch. Electricity, she has it. Solar power perhaps. Or hydro or wind. Off the grid. What I have always wanted, I think. Then I think I should turn off the light when I leave, go in, at which point the ring would clang to the floor and I do not want to listen to my ring clatter, and the ring may further get itself lost in the floor, in the vent register for example, except there are no vent registers because this is a oneroomlogcabinwithabathroom without forced air, but there are plenty of cracks in the floor in which to lose a ring, many more than four corners, and not a few holes, as in drains and mouse access openings and other holes less holey, all of which are hungry for a ring, which they would swallow, finger inside or no, no questions asked. Whether a man is inside it or no. I am not sure what I want to do and do not want to do right now, and all the bifurcations between, but I am absolutely without a doubt positive I at this very moment have no inkling of a desire to be looking for a ring I am inside on the one hand and outside on the other."

ebook

First published May 1, 2014

About the author

Nick Stokes is the author of the novel AFFAIR, first serialized by The Seattle Star, the (anti)-choose-your-own-adventure YOU CHOOSE, and the attempt to consciousness ARTIFACT COLLECTIVE. His short prose and fictions and nothings have been published by Bumf, Paper Darts, Crab Orchard Review, Mixer, Waccamaw, Prick of the Spindle, Knock, and others. His plays have been seen in various venues: DUELS in a built garden at 12th Ave Arts in Seattle and On the Boards NWNW Fest, WAS IS WILL BE MUSIC in a Seattle hotel room, and THE SOUND WE MAKE in Tacoma's Old City Hall. DUELS, produced in 2016 by amador/stokes, received reviews that said such words as "an absorbing work of agricultural absurdity" and "a vibrant, surreal production" and "DUELS presents a cornucopia of senses, languages, themes, and genres ... reminds us what it means to be human" and "Come the f*** on with this s***." He once-upon-a-time packed mules in Montana, lives in Tacoma, and is virtually sometimes at http://www.nickstokes.net.

Reviews

[Nick Stokes · Rating 5 out of 5]

"A man wishes to write a novel in which one of the characters goes mad; while working on it he himself goes mad by degrees, and finishes it in the first person."
-- Kierkegaard, 1837

'Whether he himself in this way also went "insane" is here of less importance than the fact that he now -- at last -- can operate in the first person, singular, present, indicative, active.'
-- Joakim Garff, 1997

[Joshua Swainston · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read Nick's novel Affair when it first appeared as a serial in the Seattle Star. It is a book that is lost in thought, caught in between the moments of conversation, in that uncomfortable 'what now' moment. It is in that space that Stokes shows the characters as eternally flawed humans.

[Cameron Kobes · Rating 2 out of 5]

This short novel is written in an ambitious surrealistic stream-of-consciousness style that brought to mind James Joyce. That style, right from the beginning, makes it a challenging read.

In the narrative, The Author (not the novel's actual author, but a character referred to as The Author. I assume there's a difference between the two) has tensions with his wife and parents his kids while working on a surreal novel about a man named Palo who collects and sells sticks from a mysterious forest and who has a extramarital affair with Antoinette, a woman who lives in the forest. The premise is interesting, but this novel quickly lost me as it spent a major percentage of its pages deviating from that premise and meandering into tangents about toilets or various other topics. In fact, I have never read a book that focused on urine as much as this book. It sounds like an exaggeration, but genuinely this book spent more time on bathrooms and toilets and related topics than it did on relationships and affairs. I swear, something like a third of the pages have some reference to peeing, and by the third or fourth mention I was rolling my eyes and beginning to consider marking this DNF just because of that.

It's a very experimental and peculiar novel. Maybe other readers will appreciate its oddness more than I did.

[Greg Metcalf · Rating 5 out of 5]

Affair alternates between perspectives of the Author and a character Palo. Although the Author and Palo are the same person. This isn't something I figured out, this is something the Author told me. Although I'd already guessed it, so I suppose I did figure it out. Although I hadn't really figured it out, the author told me. Not the Author from the book but the author who wrote the book. He didn't tell me, either. He left it there for me to figure out. And so deftly that I felt for a while like I'd figured it out, before I figured out that he'd told me, which I also figured out.

Palo meets a woman while he's out picking up sticks to sell for stones. The Author's wife accuses the Author of hiding out by engaging in solipsism and calling it writing which might be accurate but is it fair? These are questions the book asks but are they answered? I'm still waiting to find out if I figured this book out from what Palo told me or the Author told me or what the author told me or if what I figured out was what I told me.

As the story progresses, Palo and the Author's stories entwine until it's hard to tell who is who. By then you're in the story. No, literally. You are in the story. This would maybe be a little uncomfortable except that you find yourself in the capable hands of the author, who might be in the story with you, or maybe isn't, but you feel like he is, which is all you need.

Please allow this review to pique your interest enough to sample the opening pages of Affair by Nick Stokes. I did and enjoyed them enough that I ordered the paperback. I read it twice, enjoyed it the first time, and enjoyed it even more the second.

[Sally · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found the author's style of writing unique as it was different from the writings I usually come across. There were some things in the book that were quite repetitive, but I understood while reading the book that that's how the author was trying to convey the characters emotions and characteristics indirectly. I felt like there should've been more of an interesting plot, but overall this book was pretty good. I definitely recommend it to people who want to get an insight on a story's character's struggles. It's nice to have received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads!

[Wheeler · Rating 1 out of 5]

Starts well enough but it just goes on and on and on into its nonsense. While I understand that's the point, it doesn't mean it makes it worth reading.