Facticity Blues

by Jake Camp

“Jake Camp starts with an exotic island where social conventions are bent or abandoned and where linguistic invention is a way of life, mixes in characters that are somewhat beyond the fringe but not freakish, adds a dash of philosophy to keep you questioning everything, ladles it out with a style as fresh and salty as the sea that swells under every scene, and serves up a delicious literary dish entitled Facticity Blues. This is a bubbling bouillabaisse of a book, full of tasty surprises and layers of flavors that will please any reader's palate.”



--Ron Cooper, author of Hume's Fork, Purple Jesus and The Gospel of the Twin

184 pages, Paperback

First published June 10, 2016

Reviews

[Donna Foster · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the weirdest book I have ever read.

[Lynne Rhine · Rating 5 out of 5]

A short but deceptively deep read. On the surface, Facticity Blues is whimsical, but underneath there are layered meanings with many philosophical references.

[Haselrig · Rating 5 out of 5]

This really rattled my cage and saved me from slipping into a Swedish mystery coma from the novel I read just before turning to this. It reads a bit like Alex Garland's The Beach somewhere before original sin with James Doohan as your spirit animal. Just plain cool.

Facticity Blues is a short novel with a lot going on under the hood just asking to be re-read periodically just to see what nugget stands out the second or third time around. I'd recommend it for anyone looking for something smart and completely different.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to contemplate my own facticity for a while.

[Standupphilosopher · Rating 5 out of 5]

A facinating and entertaining novel of ideas, employing parallel narratives that follow comic travelogues, and provides, with a light touch, philosophical and psychological insights in equal measure. Fantastical elements are integrated with the realistic experiences of the characters, who encounter alternative ways of living on the island of Sombra. The inhabitants (Sombrarians), have utopian aspirations, which fall prey to the complexity and frailty of human desires and endeavors. Underlying the humorous depiction of these events appears to be an invitation for the reader to ponder the ideas sprouting from each page, and to join the characters in their journey toward self-discovery. The novel is compact and moves at a brisk pace, leaving this reader wanting to remain in the world of Sombra, contemplating its various ideas and lifestyles over coffee or beer (which play an important role in island life). Or take up a game of Scrabble (the national sport). An unconventional novel that rewards repeated reading.

[Suzanne Sotzing · Rating 4 out of 5]

I did enjoy this book, but I found it to be WAY out there. I'd love to stay on an island where the rules are: that there are no rules. That there is no work on Mondays or Tuesdays. That Scrabble is taken ever so seriously and you can even make up your own words...if you can explain what the word means and it relates to the free-wheeling island life. The book went in so many directions sprinkled with incredible occurrences, (and random interjections from Scotty of the Starship Enterprise no less), but was ultimately summed up in the last pages.

[Krista · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this book in a Goodreads giveaway. The story of a young couple who travel and stay at a type of utopian island with its own set of rules and social networks. Overall the book did not capture my attention and there is little I have absorbed from it.