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Merica
A multiple-tour war veteran and amputee returns to life in America only to find himself untethered and disconnected in a terrible interiority. On what might be his last day alive, he navigates his way through the American landscape as multiple stories surround and build around his tale, leading to a culmination that shows a greater connection between all things.
Merica is a mainstream, literary novel with a postmodern, craquelure aesthetic in the traditions of Murakami, Ellis and DeLillo. While certainly fractured, the stories that intertwine and weave around each other are centered on the tale of Andy Newcomb, a veteran of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, and his experiences in New York on the Ides of March. The other stories concern a girl running away from an abusive situation, an old man on a quest for cheese, two NYPD cops on the beat, a homeless man on the run from satellites, a sparrow, a Christian suicide bomber, a Muslim suicide bomber, a young drifter dealing with sorrow in New Bedford, a housewife in Iowa, an icecutter who lost his life a hundred years earlier, and many more. The stories are written from different voices and points of view, depending on the narrator, but all center around Andy’s experience in a growing crescendo of interconnectivity and significance. Regardless of time, the stories build and unite into a mosaic of humanity, creating hope for the protagonist, and America as well.
Merica is a mainstream, literary novel with a postmodern, craquelure aesthetic in the traditions of Murakami, Ellis and DeLillo. While certainly fractured, the stories that intertwine and weave around each other are centered on the tale of Andy Newcomb, a veteran of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, and his experiences in New York on the Ides of March. The other stories concern a girl running away from an abusive situation, an old man on a quest for cheese, two NYPD cops on the beat, a homeless man on the run from satellites, a sparrow, a Christian suicide bomber, a Muslim suicide bomber, a young drifter dealing with sorrow in New Bedford, a housewife in Iowa, an icecutter who lost his life a hundred years earlier, and many more. The stories are written from different voices and points of view, depending on the narrator, but all center around Andy’s experience in a growing crescendo of interconnectivity and significance. Regardless of time, the stories build and unite into a mosaic of humanity, creating hope for the protagonist, and America as well.
314 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 23, 2018
1 person want to read
About the author
Joshua Daniel Cochran
6 books10 followersA graduate of the University of Arizona and City College of New York, my first published short story won the Fred Scott Award way back in 2002. More recent publications include Bourbon Penn and The Gathering Darkness anthology from Black Cat Books. My second novel, The Most Important Memoir Ever Written Ever, was released in January, 2014. Currently, I live and write in my hometown of Tucson, Arizona.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
August 20, 2018
This book is a multi-layered, thought-provoking, subtly philosophical, articulate body of work. It is not a beach-read novel. You won’t whip through this one in a weekend. Its nuances are meant to be absorbed and savored in smaller bites, in a style not dis-similar to that of Tom Robbins. Clear away your conditioning about how the typical novel should progress, and open Merica ready and willing to be taken on an original literary ride.
Imagine yourself looking out of a window in a New York high rise. Humanity swarms below; birds flit between the few trees planted along the sidewalk; a cardboard coffee cups rolls into the gutter, and everything and everyone pulsates with life. You begin to zero in on people in the crowd, wondering what their individual stories might be and why they are crossing each others paths at this moment in time. Fate? A Divine plan? Serendipity at work? Now open the book to page 1.
The threads of multiple perspectives are loosely knotted around what Andy—a recently returned wounded Veteran—experiences, as he tries to assimilate to civilian life. Through him we begin to fathom the mental agony of the soldier who may never find his way back to life “before.” Swirling around him and spiraling around each other is a cast of characters ranging from a single-minded terrorist to a befuddled elderly man, on a quest to buy the perfect cheese to please his son.
Using a cast of unusual characters, Cochran presents a deeply insightful perspective into the human condition. It’s definitely gritty and raw, but rings with truth. Each reader will pull something different to take home with them. As Cochran says, each person draws from their own life experience, so when I use the word chair in a sentence to you, you and I will conjure up a different mental image of “chair.” Fascinating thought. No wonder there is so much confusion in the world, even when we speak the same language.
For me, the undercurrent in this novel is a deep respect for life in all its forms, and the danger the destructive side of humans poses to all other living things. Each creature has every right to enjoy the lives they live, uninterrupted. So, we are left with the question at the end of the book, in spite of all disharmony in the world today, is the universe really unfolding as it should?
(I gave this book four stars because, as a literary work, it won't be for everyone.)
Imagine yourself looking out of a window in a New York high rise. Humanity swarms below; birds flit between the few trees planted along the sidewalk; a cardboard coffee cups rolls into the gutter, and everything and everyone pulsates with life. You begin to zero in on people in the crowd, wondering what their individual stories might be and why they are crossing each others paths at this moment in time. Fate? A Divine plan? Serendipity at work? Now open the book to page 1.
The threads of multiple perspectives are loosely knotted around what Andy—a recently returned wounded Veteran—experiences, as he tries to assimilate to civilian life. Through him we begin to fathom the mental agony of the soldier who may never find his way back to life “before.” Swirling around him and spiraling around each other is a cast of characters ranging from a single-minded terrorist to a befuddled elderly man, on a quest to buy the perfect cheese to please his son.
Using a cast of unusual characters, Cochran presents a deeply insightful perspective into the human condition. It’s definitely gritty and raw, but rings with truth. Each reader will pull something different to take home with them. As Cochran says, each person draws from their own life experience, so when I use the word chair in a sentence to you, you and I will conjure up a different mental image of “chair.” Fascinating thought. No wonder there is so much confusion in the world, even when we speak the same language.
For me, the undercurrent in this novel is a deep respect for life in all its forms, and the danger the destructive side of humans poses to all other living things. Each creature has every right to enjoy the lives they live, uninterrupted. So, we are left with the question at the end of the book, in spite of all disharmony in the world today, is the universe really unfolding as it should?
(I gave this book four stars because, as a literary work, it won't be for everyone.)
Displaying 1 of 1 review