Slumberland
Slumberland
Poetry, or metrics, anyway.
“I’m not the “it all happens for a reason, God has a plan, everything will work out like an HBO television show” type.” Page 41.
The language itself, mastery of almost verse.
Same author, some years back — The Sellout.
When I started reading Slumberland, I recalled that author’s “voice,” and assured, and confident tone that moved rhythmically, almost musically, as the words danced across the page.
Music plays the central role, really, as the novel’s about a DJ who leaves America to find a mythical recording artist in Germany. Against the backdrop of East and West Germany, stoic Aryan behavior against the soulful, jazz underpinnings of the improvisational and musical stylings?
Weird, that I didn’t figure it out, but the copyright on the book is long before the author’s award-winning The Sellout. Clear, amusing, and distinctive “voice.”
“In English you label groups of people by their moral intentions and collective needs. A mob tries to convince itself it’s right and needs to prove it. A crowd knows it’s right because if it weren’t right, they would all need to be someplace else. A throng doesn’t give a fuck about moral imperatives, it just wants and needs something to happen.” Page 185.
Even better in light of current definitions and political conditions.