The Taxidermist's Catalog

by James Brubaker

For music journalist Daniel Morus the notion that things could be going better is a double album-sized understatement. He finds himself on the wrong side of a brief second marriage, professionally irrelevant, and facing the last act of his life with few friends and little prospect for fulfillment—never mind happiness. His one remaining pleasure is the folk music he’s spent the better part of his career listening to and writing about, especially the work of 1970s wunderkind Jim Toop, who enthralled audiences with lyrics that even after decades bristle with the kind of authenticity that can change a person’s life. The same Jim Toop whose career was cut short when he mysteriously disappeared on a desert highway while driving to his next show, providing fodder for generations of conspiracy theorists. So when he’s approached by the editor of Folk! Magazine with the job of authenticating what might be the lost studio tape of Toop’s final, unreleased album, The Taxidermist’s Catalog, he jumps at the chance to do something that feels valuable again. Joined by a teenaged Toop enthusiast who calls himself Fox Mulder, Morus travels in the musician’s footsteps, interviewing friends and family members as he makes his way towards Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, where what he discovers about Jim Toop has the power to transform more than one life.

Smart, funny, and written with a music insider’s sensibility, The Taxidermist’s Catalog will remind you what if feels like to be transformed by the power of music.

Praise for The Taxidermist's Catalog

No one—no one—writes music like James Brubaker. This rock caper is as heartfelt and smart as it is funny and strange. Brubaker’s narrator, the hard-smoking Daniel Morus, is a Lester Bangs-meets-Philip Marlowe freelancer who takes us to Truth or Consequences in a synesthesia-fueled search for the story behind a long-lost album and Jim Toop, the disappeared acid-folkie who made it. The Taxidermist’s Catalog is a novel, but Brubaker uses the form like an old analog recording studio—I can clearly hear the ghost of Toop singing in my ear.
—Jon Billman, author of The Cold Vanish and When We Were Wolves

The Taxidermist’s Catalog blends music journalism with literary mystery to create a propulsive rock Noir thriller. Shades of Nabokov’s Pale Fire and Pynchon’s The Crying of Lot 49 combine with The X-Files, UFOs, game shows, and Jerry Hopkins’s No One Here Gets Out Alive in this investigation of loss and memory. Even solved, the mystery lingers as tantalizingly as the “Paul Is Dead” hoax or Jim Sullivan’s 1975 disappearance.
—Matthew Cutter, author of The Closer You Are: The Story of Robert Pollard and Guided By Voices

The Taxidermist's Catalog is a compelling examination into the disappearance of musician, Jim Toop. Given meticulous attention to obsession, song lyrics, and biographical detail, this rare and carefully evoked novel is both challenging and conspicuously fun: admirers of Pynchon, Borges, and Nabokov will especially love it. "I'm not that different from the conspiracy theorists and mystery hounds," Brubaker's narrator tells us, but it is the conspiracies and mysteries that drive this exciting and ambitious novel. I absolutely loved it.
—Brandon Hobson, National Book Award Finalist and author of Where the Dead Sit Talking

When middle-aged music writer Daniel Morus receives a reel-to-reel tape of what may be an unheard album by his favorite musician, Jim Toop, Morus's depressed existence is catapulted into a search for the truth—about the long-missing Toop, his life and loves, but about his own as well. With a teenage hacker named Fox Mulder by his side, Morus embarks on a journey that is touching, hilarious, technically inventive, and page-turning. Evocative of Dana Spiotta's rock novels, Nick Hornby's Juliet, Naked, Delillo's Great Jones Street, and other stalwarts in the rock genre, The Taxidermist's Catalog combines a big heart with the eye of a true music fan. Ultimately, it is about characters who look backward to find their way forward. —Constance Squires, author of Along the Watchtower and Live from Medicine Park

343 pages, Paperback

Published September 23, 2019

Reviews

[Eric Gilliland · Rating 3 out of 5]

Intriguing premise about the lore surrounding an obscure singer-songwriter Jim Toop with a cult following who may have faked his own death during the 1970s. A sad and lonely rock critic (Daniel Morus) is given a tape of what may be a lost album by the fabled Toop. A young teen also obsessed with Toop also joins the quest for the truth. Part of the novel deals with computer hackers, which I found dull and slapdash, I generally find hacker stories to be boring. Larger themes of cultural identification with iconic musicians and the X-Files were compelling, but onslaughts of Easter Eggs and obscure pop culture references weren't enough to sustain the story for me. There was also a sad emptiness to all the characters that I found repetitive. Being from Ohio, I did appreciate the shout outs to Dayton.

[Luke Rolfes · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful and well-orchestrated book. Brubaker demonstrates fantastic control over the narrative throughout the novel. The dominoes of Jim Toop's mystery fall into place at just the right time.

[Lindsay Hickman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was surprised at this book, it is a work of fiction, but I really could've believed everything had actually taken place. If you are a music buff or pop culture junkie you will really enjoy this read, it is funny, creative, and it pulls on the nostalgia heart strings. A few things that I wish were just a little different is the change in narrator, I wish it would've stuck to only two different perspectives instead of the three or four, two of them were really, really well done and I felt close with those characters and would've enjoyed being inside of their heads more. Also there are a lot of characters to keep track, with the different narrators, but it works. If you like music, conspiracy theories, aliens, and pop culture references then you'll love this book.

[Matthew · Rating 5 out of 5]

James Brubaker's novel is ostensibly about an aging music writer investigating the death of a long-lost cult singer-songwriter, but it quickly explodes, fractal-like, splintering the narrative into the different points of view of the people who were affected by the enigmatic Jim Toop. The narrative is experimental, but grounded, and serves to best explore the idea that we may never fully understand life, and the multitude of forces that shape us and our understanding of the world.

[Brooke Turner · Rating 5 out of 5]

I could not put this book down! Maybe it was the nostalgia of having grown up watching the X Files and listening to my parents folk music but this novel takes you to a place in the past and when it’s finished, you can’t help but feel the past lingering. It is a riveting story about the search for truth and the capacity we have as human beings to believe only what we want or even need to believe. You will be on the edge of your seat. No question.