ARC D'x

A previous reviewer ventured the bold opinion that Steve Erickson cannot write. This authority has a point. Steve Erickson cannot write in the same way that Bob Dylan cannot sing. If you care to be somewhat challenged (Mr. Erickson has a reputation as one of those difficult writers, but he's not really that difficult, if you're in the habit of paying attention to the book that you're reading), and you ache to understand both your nation and your soul, I suggest that you read this book. It will lead you down a path you do not expect. Perhaps the most profound American novel of the 20th century.

This is a creative work than spawns further than the imagination will typically allow. This is an exuberant blend of creativity to come to the truth about the soul, and the reality of that wich posseses it, or vice versa. A must read, if your willing to be exposed to the insane chaos it may reveal. 5+

"Arc D'X" is formally and thematically in the tradition of William Faulkner and Ishmael Reed -- the novel pounds down traditional versions of history, sex and race relations, and serves up what remains in a chaotic vision of culture at the turn of the 21st century. The scale-shifting and looping narrative(s) of the book are enough to cause vertigo in readers unaccustomed to the style, but the Jefferson/Hemings tension is rich enough to interest anyone concerned with the kind of private obsessions that have their fruition sometimes in the history of a nation, or in the history of an idea such as "the pursuit of happiness."

Even if you don't believe the hyperbolic Pynchoncover blurb, check out this extraordinary novel.Erickson takes us to Paris, where Thomas Jefferson rapes his young slave, Sally Heming. Sally then becomes the weft of the novel, weaving together the theme (the relationship between love and freedom) and the diverse time-locales, including turn-of-the-millenium Berlin and an unspecified dystopian city at the foot of an active volcano. Erickson's prose is razor-sharp, and his fictional universe is both complex and internally consistent, making this novel a rewarding read.