Book Review: Spaceman Blues: A Love Song by Brian Francis Slattery
Spaceman Blues: A Love Song by Brian Francis Slattery
Reading a book that seems to fuse the ends of the writing and reading world bell curve could have been a real disaster or a complete success. Luckily, this falls into the second.
Wendel is a heart broken over the disappearance of Manuel, his love and soul-partner. But this is not regular disappearance, he literally vanished. Manuel is a social wonder and loved by many, hated by many, and every time we learn more about him, involved with seemingly everything. Poor Wendell learns of most of this as his search continues and information is revealed.
I will borrow a bit of summary here – though I have edited it to limited spoilers:
Editor/writer/musician Slattery’s chaotic debut takes readers on a headlong trip to the end of the world. Manuel González, a legendary New York City party animal, has disappeared and his apartment has exploded, leaving behind only the memories of his thousands of friends and enemies. His lover, Wendell Apogee, is determined to find out what happened. So are police inspectors Herman Trout and Lenny Salmon, who uncover a web of bizarre characters, from Lucas Henderson, former Lunar Temple cult member, and Arturo El Flaco Domínguez, González’s worst enemy, to a washed-up ’80s pop band the Marsupials.
Brian Francis Slattery - editor, writer, and occasional musician (you should look at this guy's resume!)
I think there are 2 ways you could look at this book – both of which hold up. I can see people complaining about a plot that jumps and seems to have logical thrown out and that a book with aliens and super heroes should move along at a brisk clip. I get that. I find my self on the other end. The writing is fluid and lyrical, almost poetic in its rhythm sometimes. The plot does jump and things happen for reasons that are sometimes revealed and sometimes not. But it matches the acid-dripped version of New York that this is written in. There are times when the action picks up that I would like more “POW!, BAM!, ZAP!” but they are few and the literary flow and nearly “coming of age” factor are an interesting counter point to the comic book-like plot.
Basically – I liked it! I will go check out his second book, with equally long title – Liberation: Being the Adventures of the Slick Six After the Collapse of the United States of America.
