The Driftless Trilogy

by Rick Harsch

Rick Harsch's satirical noir trilogy, consisting of The Driftless Zone, Billy Verite, and The Sleep of Aborigines have long been out of print. Generally well reviewed, if seldom, the books with their variegated styles, registers, and post-modern inventiveness, have maintained a lively base of readers who have expressed the desire to obtain these books, all victims of translation into a French language press that went bankrupt at the crucial moment two of them were ready to be widely disseminated in pocket form. Now corona/samizdat has brought the three together in a small, fat pocket book with the playfullness of the author on full display in the presentation, beginning with a single blurb on the cover written by a reader from Australia, a cover design by the inimitable cover artist Jason Snyder, whose shadow of a cockroach over an evocative mulit-colored map of the driftless area of the books domain captures much of the thematic aspects of the book, and the back of the book that is in violation of polite publishing norms in three aspects: a) the blurb is about the author instead of the books; b) the description of the books is managed through a suggestive and lengthy disclaimer; and, finally, c) the author photo is a shot of the author from behind as he graps the James Joyce, in statue form in Trieste, crossing Ponte Rosso, by the crotch. It must be noted that the three novels within, though of the noir genre, certainly play by their own rules as well. They are funny, dark, works that would please the original dadaists of a century ago.

Paperback

Published July 9, 2020

About the author

Publisher, chief editor of corona\samizdat press; Izola, Slovenia....www.corona\samizdat press; rick.harsch@gmail.com
The Manifold Destiny of Eddie Vegas, a novel;
and
Walk Like a Duck, a Season of Little League Baseball in Italy
As of April 24, 2020, these two books are available in a world edition from corona/samizdat, as explained in the following youtube video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4JUl...

I have finished a two volume anthological novel, The Assassination of Olof Palme, a an anthological novel, which involves the contributions of at least 50 writers from about 20 countries, and extracts the fungus of the Reagan years, montagerates the murderous manners of secretive Nato/CIA folk in Post WWII Europe, particularly in Italy and France, pays some attention to the Assassination of Olof Palme, while exploring a sort of alternative notion of the autobiographical novel and putting an end to proofreading.




Skulls of Istria, published by River Boat Books, June 26, 2018
Not available on Amazon, only direct from:
http://www.riverboatbooks.com/our-books

Voices After Evelyn was published by Maintenance Ends Press, the Avant Garde wing of Ice Cube Press, in November of 2018
This novel is available at 19.95, from http://www.icecubepress.com/


Author of three novels published by Steerforth press:

The Driftless Zone
Billy Verite
The Sleep of Aborigines
[The Driftless Trilogy]

These three were published in translation in France, two were subsequently chosen for mass market publication and I received a copy of each before the press went bankrupt.



Author of a chapter in Creative Nonfiction's Anatomy of Baseball, prefaced by Yogi Berra.

Living now in Slovenia, where Amalietti&Amalietti of Ljubljana has published:
Several of my own novels have now been published by corona\samizdat, along with works by
Chandler Brossard
David Vardeman
Vesna Radić
Jeff Bursey
Bori Praper,
and coming soon
WD Clarke
Joao Reis
Mark Douglas
Phillip Freedenberg (with Jeff Walton)
Jomme Keller
Giuliano Vivaldi (with a co-translator)
Roberto Alt
Prasenjit Gupta
Zachary Tanner

and more

Arjun and the Good Snake (memoir)
and, in Slovene:
Arjun in dobra kača
and the novels:
Kramberger z opico (Kramberger with Monkey)
Adriatica Deserta
Istrske Lobanje (The Skulls of Istria)

2019:the novel Voices after Evelyn by a new imprint of Ice Cube Press (Iowa)
here is a review by Chris Via: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NISsr...

Reviews

[Christopher Robinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A remarkable work (or three of them, in this case). Compelling as hell. The Driftless Trilogy reads like a thriller but also really hits the literary sweet spot. In addition to the beautifully lush writing itself, it’s also got mystery, sex, violence, romance, witty satire, humor both light and dark... all of this in abundance and so much more.

Highly recommended.

[W.D. Clarke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quelle voyage!!

Non-pareil! My thoughts are summed up in reviews of and updates from the individual books:

The Driftless Zone:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Billy Verité:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

The Sleep of Aborigenes:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Next in line for me from Harsch, chronologically, will be Voices after Evelyn

[Mike E. Mancini · Rating 5 out of 5]

It did not take me four months to read this. I mislaid it, and could not finish until I found it again.
I love that no one is safe in these stories. The dialogue is cracking; the violence is necessary; the sex is hot; the bad guys are BAD, and the good guys are out of their element and in over their heads.

[David Vardeman · Rating 5 out of 5]

The three volumes that comprise "The Driftless Trilogy" were published separately in the late 90s, early 2000s in the US by Steerforth Press and have now been issued together by Corona/Samizdat press. It’s the shame of the economic forces that control the publishing “industry” here that these one-of-a-kind gems ever went out of print. Early Harsch is already unerringly confident, uncompromising in its individuality. No reader would mistake his singular voice for anyone else’s. He pays homage to some aspects of the noir genre in both literature and film but creates a twisted Main Street all his own. "The Driftless Zone," the first book, begins with a failed suicide attempt, emblematic of the unconscious death wish infecting many inhabitants of this LaCrosse. The persons we meet can neither love the small city that limits their range of motion nor transcend and leave it. They barely endure it. Some do not survive it. The best of them are endearing in their states of perplexity, their eccentricities, their search for and adherence to the truth. No matter the cost to their own comfort and ease, even their own lives, they recognize and run afoul of the powers that manipulate this fallen world they inhabit. These persons challenge the fallen state in themselves and in the most powerful representatives of the place, “businessmen,” government officials, dangerous men and women: Spleen in the first book, Billy Verite and Gerard and Eddie in “Billy Verite,” the second volume, Spleen II in the third and, in my opinion, finest volume of the triology, “The Sleep of Aborigines" (though the amazingly engaging character of Billy Verite attains a mythic status by the end of his, the second, volume), along with the writer Rick Harsh in “Sleep,” who is found murdered in the Municipool at the beginning of the 3rd volume but whose last days and words cast a guiding shadow over Spleen II’s last movements. We also encounter incidental persons like transvestite Bette Davis, The Fag With No Eyebrows, Carly, Lola (more than incidental is she), Candida and Thrush Sickles (more than incidental as well), and monster children Max and Livia who are so incisively written that they loom as large as major characters. Harsch simply does not know how not to set the most fleetingly encountered character forever in one’s mind by some wholly original detail. The dialogue is pointed, sharp, funny. And the pause given for reflection, introspection is as involving and direct and seminal as the physical movements and entanglements of these people. Here is one example, from “The Sleep of Aborigines”: “He (Spleen II) had earned his rest without moving, for he had been busy for fifteen years. He wondered how such a life squared with the notion of natural man, so done in at the end of the day he built cities; or, for that matter, with his dead brother, whose indolence was legendary but never an art form, merely a condition that by a single bullet was exalted to unconditional. Spleen’s busy life was, after all, no better than a lower form of indolence. His brother had been thinking away his will to act. Spleen had been acting to avoid having to think. And now that he was suddenly free, dangling his feet in oasist waters, the two topics he had turned his back on had asserted themselves like patient deities: his moral vacuity and the more confusing problem of escape velocity.” It doesn’t get much better than that.

These books, sharing characters, having plot concerns spread across them unresolved, finally resolved, finally share one spine, thank goodness. The Spleen brothers form the two banks of the bridge that spans them cover to cover, as should be. Together the volumes form an epic consideration both funny and horrifying of the force of entropy that forms cities and entraps the spiritual nomads who inhabit them.

[Paul Dembina · Rating 4 out of 5]

An unusual take on the noir genre - reminded me slightly of Inherent Vice

By the way "unusual" is most definitely a compliment

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

After reading Rick Harsch’s 21st Century opus The Manifold Destiny of Eddie Vegas I was eager to see what else Rick had to offer. Acquiring a copy of his first three novels, The Driftless Trilogy, and his most recent work, The Assassination of Olof Palme, I decided to start at the beginning.

The Driftless Trilogy is made up of The Driftless Zone, Billy Verite, and The Sleep of Aborigines. Published in 1997, 1998, and 2002 respectively, these three books are Rick’s introductory novels, capturing the dark noir of late 20th Century La Crosse, WI. Located on the Mississippi River in a section of the midwest referred to as the Driftless Zone this setting is familiar territory for Harsch as he lived, worked, and went to school there. This trilogy was inspired from Rick’s time working as a taxi driver in La Crosse.

I spent a good portion of this summer reading this trilogy, part of which was in Wisconsin. I’ve spent a lot of my life in Wisconsin but I had never been out west to La Crosse until about a month ago. Somewhere in the middle of reading Billy Verite I made an afternoon of exploring the town. Running along the Mississippi, this industrious town had a quaint downtown. The hills left from the lack of drift made for a quite foreign landscape for a midwest town. Any self respecting Chicagoan, such as myself, will find joy in visiting the home of Heileman’s Old Style beer as a selling point alone.

Personally I enjoyed my afternoon, but if I were to be born here, live here, and die here I’m not quite sure I’d have the same outlook. Many of the characters in this book share this sentiment as they dream of bigger things yet are held back by their midwest complacency.

Book one, The Driftless Zone, does a great job setting up the town of La Crosse and the initial murder that transforms the quaint town I visited into a dark and brooding town of mystery and intrigue. I am not particularly well versed in the genre of noir but I felt that Harsch captured the tone and feel of this style.

This book definitely feels like a product of the 90s you can draw comparisons to the works of David Lynch and Kevin Smith when it comes to the tone and dialogue. It's a relic of the time that helps place you in that world. Many scenes early on with the detectives take place in a diner and give the eerie tone of Twin Peaks.

Book two, Billy Verite, is probably my favorite. The longest, yet the fastest paced. You really start to grow beyond the setup and explore a vast cast of characters and situations. Harsch’s stylistic embellishments have room to breathe and make for some of the most memorable moments of the series. Some highlights are a battle scene between rival motorcycle gangs written in a very Tolkienesque manner and the whole plot of Billy and Lola surviving out on an island. This was probably my overall favorite narrative of the series. It feels very similar to the TV series LOST, which is especially surprising considering it comes from a book released six years before its debut.

Book three, The Sleep of Aborigines, offers a more metafictional take, as the character Rick Harsh has been killed and he offers his own thoughts on the matter. Much shorter than the previous book, it wasn’t my favorite way to end the series but far from terrible.

After having read a book as monumental as The Manifold Destiny of Eddie Vegas I did have heightened expectations for this. In the 20 years since finishing the Driftless Trilogy, Rick has really grown as an author and come to mastering his style. The concepts of a book like Eddie Vegas are much larger and look to comment on much more impactful subjects.

One of the greatest joys I had reading The Driftless Trilogy was getting to see where Rick’s style originated. Everything he is known for is here, just maybe a bit rougher in its execution. The gritty violence, dark americana, wordplay, and of course the iconic lists are all here. Seeing that this style was already taking hold right from the beginning was a great thing to experience.

[Haultaine · Rating 5 out of 5]

i’m technically not done reading this yet.

Disclaimer: I do not consider myself a “good” writer of reviews. So why would I write this review? I cannot answer that concretely. You’ve been warned. I am going to proceed to make this review about myself, my observations on this worst of all possible worlds, and I’m going to ponder on if it is possible for anyone to write anything that isn’t in some way about themselves? And, I’ll also ask, who fucking cares? At the time of writing this I learned that the Biden admin is sending $735 million in guided missiles to Israel. Typical imperialist oligarchies doing what they do best at the expense of much innocent life. Absolutely horrendous. And before you comment and tell me to look at both sides of the “conflict,” i’ll tell you that I have, from the vantage point of sifting through propaganda drenched reporting, and it was learning that reporters count women and children combatants in Palestine to “even out the numbers” of fighters on both sides, even when Israel has a US and other-first-world-countries’ backed military and Palestine has not a military at all. And anyone that criticizes Palestine for doing questionable things while overlooking all the questionable things Israel is and has been doing is just not a good person, if you ask me. This is not to say that I am a good person. But I will say that I am a better person than you if you remotely try and justify Zionist apartheid, ethnic cleansing, and other typical imperialist maneuvers that are kind of nothing new. I learned near the end of Billy Verité that “It was at Ujiji where the Zulus, armed only with spears, defeated the British, an impossible victory by natives over a modern army.” In other words, imperialist armies have been decimating natives for a long time, sadly, and what is happening in Palestine comes across as an evil echo of these atrocities that seem to never stop happening.

I learned about this $735-million-in-guided-missiles development on 17 May 2021. This is also one day after I finished reading Billy Verité (1998), the second installment of The Driftless Trilogy. Up until now I have not decided to write a review for this trilogy. I almost never write reviews. But today is also Rick’s birthday, and I dunno how old he is but I am sure grateful that he is, simply. He’s quite an interesting human being, to say the least. He’ll probably talk to you if you reach out to him. The title of chapter 59 in Billy Verité is Sometimes All People Really Want is To Talk for crying out loud.

These novels are full of little details, and big important details, like the Ujiji one, that I found quite delightful. “he was sobbing, quietly and with his head hanging down. He was more discouraged at the lack of desire, the dismal feeling of being rootless in the center of a vast calm, than he was about the fact that he was soon going to die. So he cried.” ... “he might at the very least be able to think to himself, ‘I’ve come unhinged,’ “ ... just look at that last sentence and notice how the “I” in “‘I’ve” is between two apostrophes like it’s unhinged from the text like Stratton, the character, is thinking to himself about coming unhingned. Brilliance.

These novels have been filled with much brilliance. I’m still not done with the third one, so i may or may not come back in here and add my thoughts on that one once I’ve finished it. I just want to add how nice it is that Rick is approachable and willing to discuss his own work with people, not something I see many authors doing, but maybe it’s my fault for not reaching out to every author i’ve found myself fond of reading. Maybe it’s because I’ve found myself talking to Rick that I love his work so much but I doubt it, because before i ever read a page of his work I was talking to him, and I felt an inner nervousness, “what if I don’t like his work?” “how will I avoid ever discussing this fact should this be how I end up feeling about it?” because I have certainly found myself not enjoying many things I’ve read, this is a terrible thing. Life is too short to read stuff one doesn’t enjoy reading!

De gustibus non est disputandum! “In matters of taste, there can be no disputes!” What doesn’t do it for me means nothing, really. This works inversely, too. I don’t know how to sell anyone on reading Rick’s work. I do know that his writing d-o-e-s i-t f-o-r m-e. I can’t help but make comparisons, I’ve read many unforgettable novels. There have been a whole slew of things that have happened in these first two novels of The Driftless Trilogy that I think only a neurological disorder or death could make me forget. I don’t want to say what those things are here so as not to spoil these works.

As Stratton, the unhinged character, eventually discusses with another character who isn’t feeling so unhinged, or “world-weary”, as Gerard, this other character, describes it, “There’s too much I want to do before I die...There’s a lot of things I want to read...” Same, Gerard, same. For me this certainly includes taking in everything Rick has written.

Something else I want to do, but I don’t know how to go about doing it, is to somehow make the world not be such a shit-hole at the expense of oligarchs and imperialists. but like Daveed Diggs says in some Clipping. song, I can’t remember which one specifically off the top of my head, “it’s not knife to a gunfight, more like twig to a tank.” but now I have Rick’s insights countering this with “The meaning of Ujiji.” or like the beautiful human being Malcolm X said, “If you're not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.” So, maybe it goes without saying, but i say Free Palestine. I say end oligarchic and imperialist greed, somehow. I say read a good book in the process, a book that does it for you, that you feel you can’t wait to see where it goes from where you’re at in it. Try not to let the evil in this world crush you and make you come completely unh’i’nged. It’s certainly not easy. It’s most certainly a mess that doesn’t appear will clear up any time soon, but will most likely become messier. I mostly agree with Roberto Rossellini when he said “I am not a pessimist; to perceive evil where it exists is, in my opinion, a form of optimism.” except I do consider myself a pessimist. I think pessimism is the only rational response to this worst of all possible worlds. I also think art has the power to make that more tolerable. And Rick’s books and friendship have made life more tolerable for me so far. Thanks, Rick. And I hope your B-day is as good as it can be!!! Thank you for putting your thoughts into novel format for the world 🖤

[Jean Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

A noir, philosophical satire that whispers, as the alternate title suggests, the outmigration of small towns, as a means to convey an array of stories through the eyes of several unique characters. The driftless trilogy is a package of strange and at many times amusing discourses by characters that seem so out of this world, but are in reality a very good representation of the moving fuel of the human mind. The three novels do not need to be read in any specific order, although doing so greatly enhances the experience of submerging in the waters of this community that conforms to the entire book. The author's ability to summon the most unexpected situations while also delving into the subconscious of its characters is a trademark for the trilogy, add dark humor to the mix and what we get is a display of marvelous use of the written word which leaves you desiring for more.