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The Blindfold Test
A raucous comedy about a paranoid loser who maybe wasn't paranoid enough...
In the sixties, Jeffrey Parker briefly attended an antiwar rally. He wasn't all that interested--he just listened to a few speeches, and went home...and nothing was ever the same.
In this wildly comic novel, Parker's brief dalliance is the beginning of the end. He never lands a decent job. Women never stick around. He has terrible stretches of bad luck, and is the unwilling victim of just plain bizarre once, he comes home to find that the final page in every one of his books has been removed.
Then Parker discovers that he's been the target of a government plot--like the FBI's real-life COINTELPRO--and the obsession of a rogue FBI agent who just won't give up.
This outrageously imaginative debut is reminiscent of John Kennedy Toole's explosive, out-of-nowhere farce A Confederacy of Dunces . Part thriller, part national tragedy, and all hysterical comedy, it is devilishly entertaining even as it forces Parker and readers to uncover the truth not only about their country, but about themselves.
In the sixties, Jeffrey Parker briefly attended an antiwar rally. He wasn't all that interested--he just listened to a few speeches, and went home...and nothing was ever the same.
In this wildly comic novel, Parker's brief dalliance is the beginning of the end. He never lands a decent job. Women never stick around. He has terrible stretches of bad luck, and is the unwilling victim of just plain bizarre once, he comes home to find that the final page in every one of his books has been removed.
Then Parker discovers that he's been the target of a government plot--like the FBI's real-life COINTELPRO--and the obsession of a rogue FBI agent who just won't give up.
This outrageously imaginative debut is reminiscent of John Kennedy Toole's explosive, out-of-nowhere farce A Confederacy of Dunces . Part thriller, part national tragedy, and all hysterical comedy, it is devilishly entertaining even as it forces Parker and readers to uncover the truth not only about their country, but about themselves.
- GenresFiction
272 pages, Paperback
First published June 2, 2009
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
July 16, 2009
I picked this novel up because I am a huge fan of Melville House and will read pretty much anything they publish. Plus, the reviews their newsletter linked to were comparing The Blindfold Test to Hunter S. Thompson and Pynchon. While Schechter does possess some of Thompson's keyed-up elan and Pynchon's obsession with conspiracy, either comparision is a stretch.
The basic idea behind the novel is this: Jeff Parker was poised for greatness after his PhD dissertation rocked the critical world in the early 1980s. He had a beautiful girlfriend, offers for professorships at Yale and Harvard, and was being courted by every critical journal and publishing house under the sun. Then, suddenly and inexplicably, things began to go wrong. All the universities suddenly found they couldn't hire him for one reason or another, the offers to publish his work dried up, and his girlfriend left him because he was too "unobservant." By 1982, he is a washed-up, lonely dude living in a barely-furnished hovel in Chicago and teaching courses on "The Art of the Complaint Letter" at Skokie Valley Community College.
Then one day a figure from his past appears at his office hours and shakes up his entire sense of reality. Steve Dobbs was an acquaintance of Parker's in college and, it turns out, has gone on to fame and fortune (or, at least fortune)as the publisher of a National Enquirer style newspaper. According to him, what is so brilliant about the paper is that, while about 90 percent of the stories they print are purely bogus, paranoid claptrap the remaining 10 percent are actually true. He has come to warn Parker that they are about to publish a story on him. In the 50's J. Edgar Hoover (and this is true) launched the counterintelligence program COINTELPRO in which FBI agents performed covert operations using illegal methods to neutralize dissidents. According to Dobbs, in the late 60s the FBI was looking for some way to keep the program afloat and generate more funding so they launched "The Breather Program." The idea was to target "nonentities" to heighten the sense of paranoia among members of the Left. Just in case they got caught, though, they came up with a brilliant way of implimenting the program without leaving a trail: They contracted each of the cases out to crackpot, paranoid, mentally unstable practical jokers. Each was assigned a subject and payed by the FBI (under the table) to be as creative as they wanted about making their life miserable. In effect, Dobbs says, what Parker had chalked up to bad luck is actually a government conspiracy. The program was called off in the 70s but the whack-job assigned to his case refused to stop harrassing him exactly because he was as "unobservant" as his girlfriend accused him of being and simply didn't aknowledge that anything was amiss in his life. Parker's "protective obtuseness" was simultaneously his downfall and his salvation. The novel chronicles Parker's adventures in untangling the conspiracy, separating the fact from the bullshit, and using his obliviousness as his only weapon in a war to get controll of his life back.
This is a very high-concept book and high-concept fiction generally irks me as it tends to be all style and no substance. The substance here is a bit light, but the concept is undeniably a fun and appealing one. (Who among us hasn't secretly wished that our mediocrity was merely the result of some huge practical joke or conspiracy?) The prose is witty (if at times a bit too self-conscious) and the dialogue crackles with an energy akin to the best hard-boilers. This book won't change your life, but it's a fun summer beach read, especially in the Post-Bush atmosphere of political psychosis.
The basic idea behind the novel is this: Jeff Parker was poised for greatness after his PhD dissertation rocked the critical world in the early 1980s. He had a beautiful girlfriend, offers for professorships at Yale and Harvard, and was being courted by every critical journal and publishing house under the sun. Then, suddenly and inexplicably, things began to go wrong. All the universities suddenly found they couldn't hire him for one reason or another, the offers to publish his work dried up, and his girlfriend left him because he was too "unobservant." By 1982, he is a washed-up, lonely dude living in a barely-furnished hovel in Chicago and teaching courses on "The Art of the Complaint Letter" at Skokie Valley Community College.
Then one day a figure from his past appears at his office hours and shakes up his entire sense of reality. Steve Dobbs was an acquaintance of Parker's in college and, it turns out, has gone on to fame and fortune (or, at least fortune)as the publisher of a National Enquirer style newspaper. According to him, what is so brilliant about the paper is that, while about 90 percent of the stories they print are purely bogus, paranoid claptrap the remaining 10 percent are actually true. He has come to warn Parker that they are about to publish a story on him. In the 50's J. Edgar Hoover (and this is true) launched the counterintelligence program COINTELPRO in which FBI agents performed covert operations using illegal methods to neutralize dissidents. According to Dobbs, in the late 60s the FBI was looking for some way to keep the program afloat and generate more funding so they launched "The Breather Program." The idea was to target "nonentities" to heighten the sense of paranoia among members of the Left. Just in case they got caught, though, they came up with a brilliant way of implimenting the program without leaving a trail: They contracted each of the cases out to crackpot, paranoid, mentally unstable practical jokers. Each was assigned a subject and payed by the FBI (under the table) to be as creative as they wanted about making their life miserable. In effect, Dobbs says, what Parker had chalked up to bad luck is actually a government conspiracy. The program was called off in the 70s but the whack-job assigned to his case refused to stop harrassing him exactly because he was as "unobservant" as his girlfriend accused him of being and simply didn't aknowledge that anything was amiss in his life. Parker's "protective obtuseness" was simultaneously his downfall and his salvation. The novel chronicles Parker's adventures in untangling the conspiracy, separating the fact from the bullshit, and using his obliviousness as his only weapon in a war to get controll of his life back.
This is a very high-concept book and high-concept fiction generally irks me as it tends to be all style and no substance. The substance here is a bit light, but the concept is undeniably a fun and appealing one. (Who among us hasn't secretly wished that our mediocrity was merely the result of some huge practical joke or conspiracy?) The prose is witty (if at times a bit too self-conscious) and the dialogue crackles with an energy akin to the best hard-boilers. This book won't change your life, but it's a fun summer beach read, especially in the Post-Bush atmosphere of political psychosis.
June 25, 2011
interesting concept, and occasional moments that made me smile, but I was just never really drawn into it. Even the main character who, given the basic plot line, should have been memorable and interesting, just felt a little flat. Most of side characters were even more indistinct. Like eating a rice cake. It's food, but it leaves you mostly unsatisfied.
January 20, 2016
I found this book while browsing at my local library. I went into it without much idea except for the description on the back about the government secretly sabotaging your life. It was a good book. Humorous at times, but not laugh out loud funny (at least to me.) I'm glad that I read it. There was an element of not knowing, which also applied to the main character, Jeffrey Parker, that was present throughout. That feeling definitely kept me going to the end.
February 10, 2011
About halfway through, I realized that I'd been mixing up two important characters for like 50 pages. Never give two separate characters the same name unless you're trying to confuse people and make them hate you. Other than that, I thought it was a great premise that he basically left for dead by the middle of the book.
August 22, 2011
This is laugh-out-loud funny. When the main character finally figures out that he has been the victim of 15 years of harassment by the FBI, he becomes overly paranoid and can't figure out what's part of the plot and what's real.
May 30, 2017
This book had a very interesting premise, though was a bit hard to follow at times. Still enjoyed the book overall.
August 13, 2019
It’s hard to get into a book where you hate the main character.
Boring plot, pretentious writing style. Very hard to get through.
Boring plot, pretentious writing style. Very hard to get through.
July 11, 2011
I was torn between "liked it" and "really liked it." Good book, good story, just not great.
May 10, 2012
Man, this thing is fast-paced, a bit crazy, and sometimes hard to follow. Also, though, it's awesome, and I loved the Chicagoland details.
October 27, 2012
To be honest I remain confused.
Cool idea though!
Cool idea though!
April 11, 2017
I got a third of the way through before I gave up.
I loved the concept, and it showed promise of being funny. Unfortunately, it turned out to be all style and no substance.
I loved the concept, and it showed promise of being funny. Unfortunately, it turned out to be all style and no substance.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews