We Are a Billion Year Old Carbon

This book is atypical for my usual genre, but I have read several of Mesler's books and find them erudite and entertaining. "Carbon" is a beautifully rendered, hypnotic trip into the lives of a group of idealistic, indulgent, incandescent and tripped-out kids who define one major current of the 60s. The book takes readers on a rollercoaster ride through the crests and troughs of the times -- Vietnam, the SDS, Kent State, Civil Rights movement, free love and drugs aplenty. Mesler writes exquisite prose and exploits contextual references germane to the times to strengthen the mood. One particularly entertaining section contains faux reviews of The Beatles as they overtook the American music scene within a matter of months and proceeded to symbolize the optimism and eventual decline of the era. I recommend this book as provocative, eloquent and relevant to our own times in ways readers will have to divine for themselves.

I have read much of Mesler's work and this is his best to date. Being another child that missed the 60's by a hair, I can appreciate this love story of a man and a time. The characters funny and tragic, flawed and perfect. You can't help but care about them and identify with them. The story (really a series of stories, poems, reveiws and travelogs) moves along a great pace and is at times funny, mystical, historical, hysterical, dramatic and vexing. I highly recomend that you grab your dictionary (Mesler uses a vocabulary that would shame Willian F. Buckley Jr.) and delve into this wild ride of a book.

This was a wild and profound trip down memory lane in a neighborhood I've never been to before. Mesler takes a broad look at a momentous period in many of our lives, but wisely filters it through the eyes of an individual. The author himself is never invisible in the novel, short story collection, poetry tome. whatever... I've read everything Mesler has written, and this is his best (his best yet, at least... I'll be eagerly looking for more to come).

This book is fabulous! A real psychedelic wonderland! And I can't believe my husband wrote it!

This book defies description, in my opinion, when it comes to what genre one would place it under: short stories, flash fiction, poetry, even music reviews...it has it all, and more. Mr. Mesler writes with a new voice, one that conjures up images that require the reader to catch his breath every so often. Already having released a very fine novel a couple of years back (Talk) which featured a unique dialogue form throughout, this work goes several steps further, describing fictitious (or not?) occurances in his native Memphis in the 60's, with a host of quirky characters that show up in the prose and poetry...and the result, to me, is sublime. You must read this book, because Corey Mesler will be a name you hear again and again in the future. He is a brilliant writer who deserves attention. This book is well worth your attention, as well!