Distemper

by James Nulick

Drew Estrada is a young teacher employed by a private academy for boys in Central Phoenix. When he suddenly finds himself the legal guardian of a popular student, his life spirals into a vortex of lust, desire and depravity. Tre and Drew spend their nights discussing Hitler and Eva Braun, Marilyn Manson, Andy Warhol, Kafka, the mysterious art of beekeeping, drum machines, the possibility of dosing the municipal water supply with LSD, and the lull of the bottle for lost and loveless truck drivers. Does Tre Warner really exist, or is Drew suffering from schizophrenia? A testosterone-fueled response to Nabokov's Lolita, Distemper is haunting and hallucinatory, a disturbing rush toward the acceptance of death. It is ultimately a contemplation of the illusory nature of love, and what it means to give yourself over to something completely. Distemper is an unsettling ghost story that will leave you chilled long after you have turned the final page.

300 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2006

Reviews

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

I would like to begin this review by saying that I liked this book's appearance very much. I was expecting the usual small press fare with dodgy production values, so imagine my surprise when I found out it was not only a hardcover, but one with an actual dustjacket (how decadent!)... and embossed lettering at that! "Oh shit, this looks like a real book!" I thought to myself in a rare moment of lucidity, as I ran my delicate fingers over the embossed lettering of the book's title in an erotic feline manner. The book's shiny vizard tantalized my shallow and materialistic side. Although not a gigantic book (at 300 pages), DISTEMPER has the feel of an epic, and is certainly a dense and difficult read (what with the very long paragraphs and the PoMo affectations: think Dennis Cooper meets David Foster Wallace meets Radiohead). However, those who take the time to actually finish it will feel, I think, suitably satisfied; there's actually a lot going on between the lines here, and I suspect that this is the sort of novel that makes an even greater impression upon a second reading, and I adore those books that don't reveal all their secrets during the initial reading. It's obvious a lot of work has gone into the characterization here, and I was very impressed by Mr. Nuclick's utilization of similes: evocative similes are one of those elements that, in my humble opinion, can only help a book achieve a state of greatness (the other element would be the application of an archaic vocabulary). I think one of my favorite similes occurred towards the very end of the tome: "Time unfurls like a sick trembling Doberman shitting blood." I'm not even 100% sure what that means but it creates a compelling image that sits uneasily in my memory after the fact. Someone on Amazon fretted that they feared the book would only appeal to pedophiles but everyone knows that pedophiles don't really read all that much, and when they can be bothered to read at all they usually gravitate towards magazines like Erbauliche Monaths Unterredungen, so, I don't think that is a concern here, ha ha! In reality DISTEMPER is the kind of book that appeals to a wide swath of the populace: elementary teachers, skateboard enthusiasts, beekeepers, mischievous schoolboys, drug dealers, Asian serial killers, Mexican janitors, homosexuals, Aphex Twin fans, etcetera etcetera...

[Diana Welsch · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was trying way too hard to be lurid and disgusting. I get it: drugs and pedophilia. Badly in need of an editor, needs better grammar and more paragraphs. Don't bother.