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Petrichor
Stevie Ludich stumbles upon a dry lakebed covered in writing that tells the story of a man who goes to a job interview with a weird corporation that seems to know an awful lot about the job candidates. As Stevie dictates the words into an old reel-to-reel, he can't help but wonder who wrote them, and why.And that's not the only thing going on in Cartago. The police chief is on the reluctant lookout for biblical signs, a young photographer/waitress is making decisions about her future, and Guy and Jeanne Valleroy have their hands full with the Communal Orgone Accumulator, the mummy of 'Ambrose Bierce?', and the impending arrival of some colorful guests. What excitement will their big event bring? And will all of these things overlap?
416 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 1, 2013
1 person is currently reading
17 people want to read
About the author
David Scott Ewers
2 books7 followersDavid Scott Ewers was born in and raised in Pomona, California. He moved to San Francisco in 1989 and to Oakland in 2002, where he currently resides with his wife and daughter. He has been writing, making music and engaging in various marginal pursuits for decades.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
October 29, 2013
I finished reading this book about five days ago, and though I recall being immersed enough in it while it was happening, I don't really have any residue of it left on me. I consider this a bad sign. I don't need a book to change my life per se, but I do want it to occasionally pop up in my brain and remind me of its existence. I know over time this becomes more and more difficult; however, that timeline probably shouldn't be less than a week.
Petrichor was a book I picked up from the library at random because I a) need to read contemporary stuff more b) browsing the "new" section is a lot less daunting than going through the 'literature' section as a whole and c) it made me think of Doctor Who. Again, not expecting much from it meant I couldn't be let down; however, I was hardly wowed.
The story tells the tale of Stevie, a kid with Issues, reading and recording a strange message he finds written in a dried-up lakebed. The message is a first person narrative- so, book-within-a-book -of a man who was recruited for a very strange job by an obviously nefarious company. At the same time, the townspeople around Stevie also have Issues and we get to hear about those as well.
None of the individual parts are too awful, but as a whole the undertaking was just too much. Or maybe not enough; nothing was finished. We were treated to glimpses into peoples' lives and into this weird, mysterious company, but nothing got resolved in the end. The work felt derivative of David Foster Wallace in that it was attempting to tie together the big and the small to form a singular cohesive idea, but Ewers lacked his commitment to an overarching narrative that brought the widely varying elements together to convey an ultimate message. (Holy crap, that's probably the most pretentious sentence I've ever written. I'm so sorry.)
Anyway, the ultimate lack of resolution, cohesiveness, and character development all made this novel fall flat. The strongest point was the story-within-a-story [SWAS], which also doesn't end, but at least looks like it may have an end goal in mind. The interesting part of all of this is that I feel as though Ewers was aware of this weakness, as his protagonist in the SWAS had the same problems. The writing itself wasn't atrocious and the concept was there, if not the execution. Though I wouldn't recommend this book necessarily, I would probably be willing to give Ewers a second chance.
Petrichor was a book I picked up from the library at random because I a) need to read contemporary stuff more b) browsing the "new" section is a lot less daunting than going through the 'literature' section as a whole and c) it made me think of Doctor Who. Again, not expecting much from it meant I couldn't be let down; however, I was hardly wowed.
The story tells the tale of Stevie, a kid with Issues, reading and recording a strange message he finds written in a dried-up lakebed. The message is a first person narrative- so, book-within-a-book -of a man who was recruited for a very strange job by an obviously nefarious company. At the same time, the townspeople around Stevie also have Issues and we get to hear about those as well.
None of the individual parts are too awful, but as a whole the undertaking was just too much. Or maybe not enough; nothing was finished. We were treated to glimpses into peoples' lives and into this weird, mysterious company, but nothing got resolved in the end. The work felt derivative of David Foster Wallace in that it was attempting to tie together the big and the small to form a singular cohesive idea, but Ewers lacked his commitment to an overarching narrative that brought the widely varying elements together to convey an ultimate message. (Holy crap, that's probably the most pretentious sentence I've ever written. I'm so sorry.)
Anyway, the ultimate lack of resolution, cohesiveness, and character development all made this novel fall flat. The strongest point was the story-within-a-story [SWAS], which also doesn't end, but at least looks like it may have an end goal in mind. The interesting part of all of this is that I feel as though Ewers was aware of this weakness, as his protagonist in the SWAS had the same problems. The writing itself wasn't atrocious and the concept was there, if not the execution. Though I wouldn't recommend this book necessarily, I would probably be willing to give Ewers a second chance.
Displaying 1 of 1 review