Temporal

by Troy James Weaver

Set to a shoegaze soundtrack, Troy James Weaver’s Temporal is the story of one tumultuous summer in the lives of three teenagers in Wichita, KS.



"Troy James Weaver is so good he shouldn't need any blurbs. Troy James Weaver is one monster of a writer. Troy James Weaver is our Witold Gombrowicz. Troy James Weaver works in a flower shop. Troy James Weaver is the first great writer who worked in a flower shop."

- Scott McClanahan, author of THE SARAH BOOK



"Troy James Weaver can write an irrational divorced drunken noise rock making bathrobe clad dad like a motherfucker. And if that isn't enough to make you buy Temporal right now than there's little hope left for any of us."

- Steve Anwyll, author of WELFARE



"Troy James Weaver guides us through a charred, hellish landscape full of dead people and clouds and broken brains. We should salute him for this intense and mysterious novel of devastation. For fans of Denis Johnson, My Bloody Valentine, and NyQuil."

- Patty Yumi Cottrell, author of SORRY TO DISRUPT THE PEACE



"Troy James Weaver is incredible. Temporal is his best work."

- Bud Smith, author of WORK



“Temporal is a novel painted with the blood of damaged, disaffected teenagers. Imagine S.E. Hinton if she listened to Sonic Youth. With each new book Troy James Weaver writes, he's creating more of an impressive landscape of American gloom and melancholy. But he’s also able to highlight an elusive beauty in the life struggles of his characters.”

- Kevin Sampsell, author of THIS IS BETWEEN US

Genres: Literary Fiction, Fiction

115 pages, Paperback

First published March 6, 2018

Reviews

[Kevin · Rating 5 out of 5]

TJW is a young man with enormous empathy and talent and I am proud to be his friend and former publisher. Here's the blurb I wrote for this dark piece of art:
“Temporal is a novel painted with the blood of damaged, disaffected teenagers. Imagine S.E. Hinton if she listened to Sonic Youth. With each new book Troy James Weaver writes, he's creating more of an impressive landscape of American gloom and melancholy. But he’s also able to highlight an elusive beauty in the life struggles of his characters.”
You should read everything he's published.

[Kelby Losack · Rating 5 out of 5]

so fucking good. made my eyes sweat and my heart vomit several times. this book is what they call a staple of the times. Weaver keeps killing it harder and harder with everything he writes.

[b · Rating 5 out of 5]

I haven’t read a book by Weaver yet that didn’t turn me green with envy. He’s already on his way to mastering a style of his own, filtered through perhaps dennis cooper, Scott McClanahan, and others, that still resonates as a voice of his own. His is a voice to listen to and I look forward to many fine books from him to come.

[Tobias · Rating 4 out of 5]

Goes from slightly askew realism into something much more harrowing, and is unafraid to take its characters into some disconcerting places.

[David Catney · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book is fucking amazing.

[Eamonn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great piece of work from Troy James Weaver, a fresh style and told from a few perspectives work to create a tense addictive story of merging and diverging lives. Very cool book.

[Kevin Maloney · Rating 5 out of 5]

Troy James Weaver is an angel of darkness and fire. Read him. Read everything.

[Nikolaj Tange Lange · Rating 5 out of 5]

OMG! YES YES YES!
Like a bleak, yet übercool, old school Araki-movie. Makes me wanna put on Loveless and start smoking again. At least for the C90 minutes it takes to devour this beautiful book.

[Jo Quenell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nobody writes about the melancholy and monotony of America better than Troy James Weaver.

[Bud Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really tight writing. A wild beast released upon the suburbs. Troy James Weaver's best book imo. A fine American writer, only getting better.

[Wayland · Rating 5 out of 5]

Solid writing, beautifully destructive and lonesome. This book slaps you in the face. Reminds me of Dennis Cooper.

[Colin · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Wow. That escalated quickly.” - Ron Burgandy

[Danielle Chelosky · Rating 5 out of 5]

read this rollercoaster of a book in one night… the way the characters are presented is magical: simultaneously detached and intimate, making them convincing and likable but full of surprises. lots of secrets and distrust are pent up in this book. you feel like you know these people, but you know you don’t—they barely know each other, barely know themselves and what they are feeling and what they are capable of. there is a line somewhere in it that says something along the lines of, everyone has the capacity to be evil. what weaver showcases is a spectrum of different evils, and all of them are complex and thought-provoking. the culminating imagery help as well: a blinding sun, lots of roadkill, drugs drugs drugs, bright bars, ropes for suicide, sexts, etc, all meshed together.

[Andy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Weaver's best work of fiction so far. While his book Witchita Stories was the energized circling of a single mind, Temporal opens on a world of strange, slow loops. It is a narrative meditation on the enervating hollowness of time. Time is the vista that separates old friends and strangers alike, and it is time that exposes the viciousness of their mutual desires, which "don't fall apart, they implode, fall away, and become never-weres..."

[Joseph · Rating 5 out of 5]

buy the book here: http://disorderpress.com/store/tempor...

[Joseph Haeger]

Weaver continues being one of my favorite writers.

[Bryce Van Vleet · Rating 4 out of 5]

My latest trip to Powells was a doozy. I always feel so much pressure there to find exactly the right books. This was my small press pick of the trip and I'm ecstatic I picked it.

In Wichita, Kansas, three friends navigate drugs, love, and rural America. Weaver's latest book is devastating and dark, apparently common themes for him. This novella sucked me in immediately and didn't let go until I turned the last, dismal page. It's a tricky thing to be good at devastating fiction. Few people manage to do so, but Weaver is one such talent.

I've been caught in a really bad reading pattern and haven't liked too much of what I've been reading as of late. Temporal helped me remember why I love reading. The WiFi was down at school so I couldn't work on homework. It's been a terrible couple of months and what I really needed was an escape. This gave me that and I'm beyond grateful. I'd tell everyone I know to read this book, but it's one of those I'll have to be careful in recommending. For the right reader, though, this could be everything.

[Devon Robbins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Troy James Weaver is a unique talent. His voice guides you through the confusion, angst, and tragedy of our generation. Temporal is a powerful look at the lives of three teenagers in Kansas, navigating the human condition. His portrayal of modern day existence stings, like it should, but ultimately leaves you with a glimmer of hope. That things happen and you make it through. Like his previous works, Temporal shines a light on what it is to be human in our day and age.

[Dave Newman · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a heartbreakingly sad look at kids growing up in America. Beautiful writing, and so much pain. This is what Jesus' Son would look like if you punched it in the face with poverty and desperation and set it in Kansas. In the world that Troy James Weaver creates, there are not enough drugs to save you from the monsters who are your neighbors and everyone else.

[Matt Neil Neil · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh man, Troy James Weaver can write. Reading this book is like watching a car crash in slow motion, shocked and/or stoned into submission as all the little pieces come apart.

I'm always more than a little envious of the economy of his writing, and the fact that he can speak with such honesty from such dark places.

The Summer of Doom indeed.

[Jason Wilder · Rating 5 out of 5]

Find a way to get your hands on Temporal. There’s something comforting in his writing. I can relate to the spiral of nothingness and everythingness colliding so violently in his characters. Plus there’s shoegaze music references.

[AutomaticSlim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ya, this quick read is pretty good. Not your normal 'teenagers who do drugs and are sad' book. Short chapters that flip through perspectives keep it flowing, and Weaver knows how to toss a killer line in your lap from time to time.

Round up 4

[Brooks Sterritt · Rating 5 out of 5]

"We drove on in silence for a few minutes, the trees and lines going by as quick as life seems to tick on and on until it seems nothing more than a vanishing point in a bad painting."

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good shit good shit.

[Hosho · Rating 5 out of 5]

What can I say? I dig stories that tear through the ravages of midwestern youth. It's dark, and you won't get out unscathed...but ain't that youth in a nutshell?

[Kristen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very dark and insightful, punchy writing that keeps you wanting to read more.

Weaver's Marigold is such a strong hitter -- this book hits even harder.

[David Simmons · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is excellent. The perspective shifts are so smooth. And the ending f**king crushed me. Another banger from Weaver.

[Kelsie · Rating 2 out of 5]

1. Listen to loveless
2. Rob a gas station