Amnesia of June Bugs

by Jackson Bliss

Jackson Bliss’s brilliant and moving debut novel redefines what a novel can be. Hurricane Sandy has just smashed into the Eastern Seaboard, trapping four passengers on the C train: a Chinese American graffiti artist grieving his father’s death, a mixed-race graphic designer struggling to become a mom, a Moroccan French translator escaping his heartache in Paris, and an Indian American traveler leaving Chicago to regain control of her life. Amnesia of June Bugs is an ambitious, infatuated, and furious book about the time we lost and the people we could have loved.

Genres: Fiction

350 pages, Paperback

Published April 26, 2022

About the author

Jackson Bliss is the winner of the 2020 Noemi Book Award in Prose & the mixed-race/hapa author of Counterfactual Love Stories & Other Experiments (Noemi Press, 2021), Amnesia of June Bugs (7.13 Books, 2022), Dream Pop Origami (Unsolicited Press, 2022), and the hypertext, Dukkha, My Love (2017). His writing has appeared in The New York Times, Tin House, Ploughshares, Guernica, Antioch Review, ZYZZYVA, Longreads, TriQuarterly, Columbia Journal, Kenyon Review, Witness, Fiction, Santa Monica Review, Boston Review, Joyland, & Quarterly West, among others. He is the Distinguished Visiting Writer at Bowling Green State University. Follow him on Twitter: https://twitter.com/jacksonbliss & join his newsletter, MIXTAPE: https://jacksonbliss.substack.com/p/c...

Reviews

[Nidhi Shrivastava · Rating 5 out of 5]

I came across Jackson Bliss’s genre-bending, experimental, and moving novel on Twitter. After reading the plot summary, I was hooked. Bliss’s novel is set in New York City and in which the city itself is one of the characters in the novel. For me, what made this novel unique and powerful was that Bliss represents the narratives of two women Suzanne and Ginger. Both of these women struggle to find themselves as the plot unfolds. However, it is Ginger’s story that to me was the most relatable and moving. As the disaster strikes, and passengers are stuck in the C-train in the subway, each of them receives a moment to reflect and this event, in many ways, influences the trajectory of their future lives. Finally, Bliss sculpts and tells the stories of people who aren’t immediately thought of when we think of popular cities such as New York and Los Angeles, but we do see a diversity of mixed race/ethnicity, first and second generation immigrants who are the social fabric of this city.

Bliss’s novel, as you can learn from his blog, which gives the readers insight into the craft is a project that took over 14 years, and something that was born from a thesis. As I just finished my dissertation as well, I could relate for the desire to for my writing/craft to find a home. Reading and seeing the history of a novel is an opportunity I have never gotten, and Bliss’s accessibly as an author made this reading experience unique and exciting. If you could like to check out his website and blog, this is the link: http://www.jacksonbliss.com/

[Rodrigo · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fucking RIDE of a book.
It's genuis. It's messy, it's singular, it broke my heart, it made me almost piss myself laughing, it's frustrating, it's balls to the walls, occasionally it's brilliance gets in it's own way (it's the only time in my life where I've read a book thinking "the writing is almost TOO good") it's filled with sentence after sentence that will blow your mind.
But really, this book has some of the most staggeringly beautiful moments I've read. It blew my mind. It made me ache for the New York I spent my 20s in. To live like that again with a heart that open again. I have way too many thoughts to be coherent here but I'm in awe of this book

[Emily Saso · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm grateful for the voices in Jackson Bliss's gifted head. Amnesia of June Bugs is deeply evocative and jammed with life. There’s a romance in the prose/dialogue, and a blistering modernity and boldness. City life. Identity. Love. Art. It’s an exhilarating, intoxicating read.

[Chloe Z · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just finished this novel this afternoon and I couldn't stop reading it! I'm a sucker for beautifully crafted sentences and Amnesia of June Bugs is chock full of them. I've got pages and pages of underlined sentences. Sometimes I wondered how this author gets away with the metaphors he uses, but he does somehow. Beyond that, this is one of the most original, confusing (in a good way), powerful, ambitious and heartbreaking books I've read in a long time. Just you wait, this novel will be a Hollywood blockbuster with an all star cast before you know it. Until then, I want to be one of the first readers to state emphatically that I knew this novel was brilliant before Hollywood did. I guess that's a low bar, haha. This novel though is high art, the kind of book where the author honors the reader's intelligence instead of insulting it. Bliss's novel is without a doubt one of my favorite books I have read this year. But don't take my word for it. See for yourself.

[Blue Kewpie · Rating 5 out of 5]

OMG this novel is gorgeous!!!!!!!!!! I'll warn you right now that this book IS a commitment since this plot goes backwards and you really have to keep your wits about you and remember all the little details, but this book rewards you for turning the page at every turn. The language is exquisite. The characters are so interesting, complex, funny, moving, intelligent and their voices are so so strong. In many ways, this novel felt really cinematic to me. But it also makes you cry. I cried at least three times reading this novel because the relationship in this book, their love for each other, was so powerful and authentic and powerful and heart breaking too. I'm going to buy three copies of this book and give it to my best friends because I want them to feel what I felt!

[Jason · Rating 5 out of 5]

•Right off the bat, go pick this book up.
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•This is the contemporary fiction that excites me. The creativity and passion behind this story is palpable within each sentence of this book. Indie presses and authors deserve the recognition and social media presence that major publishing houses have because sometimes you find gems like this that tons of people miss that are worth sharing and talking about.
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•Synopsis: AMNESIA OF JUNE BUGS redefines what a novel can be. Hurricane Sandy has just smashed into the Eastern Seaboard, trapping four passengers on the C train: a Chinese American graffiti artist grieving his father’s death, a mixed-race graphic designer struggling to become a mom, a Moroccan French translator escaping his heartache in Paris, and an Indian American traveler leaving Chicago to regain control of her life. Amnesia of June Bugs is an ambitious, infatuated, and furious book about the time we lost and the people we could have loved.
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•Blurbed by Regina King, Tommy Orange, and Viet Thanh Nguyen…? Immediately yes. Highly recommend.

[Renée · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Jackson Bliss’s debut novel Amnesia of June Bugs. Bliss is a compassionate, exhilarating writer! Full review to come.

[Namrata Poddar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly singular, creolized, narrative voice, and I love how Bliss plays with the form of the novel.

[Liza_lo · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a long sketch of four characters, two making up one couple and the other two visitors to New York whose lives will intersect wordlessly and briefly but still meaningfully in NYC.

I like this a lot for how it interrogated each character and made them feel real and also for the writing which is unabashedly beautiful. The technique of us going further into the past the further into the book we got was also interesting.

A lovely read.