Dan Chaon

“I don’t know. People are crazy, that’s what I want to explain.” Sleepwalk is the novel that some of us needed in 2022 when the incessant weirdness of our nonfictional times was just about too much to take. Writer Dan Chaon is a master class storyteller, and he does not flinch from plumbing the depths and stirring up some emotion from a cold, dark place.

This is the story of a harrowing road trip taken by a fixer-for-hire guy called “The Barely Blur” and his loyal, rescue pit bull show more named Flip. One day, this man (of a hundred aliases and off-the-grid nefarious activities) is unexpectedly contacted on one of his burner phones by a young woman claiming to be his biological daughter. This literal cross-country road trip is also interspersed with memories recalling Barely Blur’s complicated life and his path on the way to losing everything. But maybe, and this is key, maybe through the pain, he finally succumbs to caring about a connection with something or someone on the way.

Boy, oh boy, this book is a lot, skillfully told. There is a truly wide variety of legal and illegal means of survival and escape included (everything from automotive to psychological). There’s a seriously disturbing, sociopathic mother from Hades but also intelligently described females along for the ride of the narrative. And wait, there’s more. A stint in an asylum. Off-handed memories of killing, theft-scapades, kidnapping, and cleaning up bloody shooting scenes. Colorful portrayals of life-long drug use for everything from relaxation to self-medication to murder. Contemplation about parental responsibilities and failures. Much about self-identity and betrayal and letting go of control. Finally, as a bonus, there is a whacked conspiracy theory as a framework for the story.

Prescient, future times are the important background setting for this novel, slowly revealed in glimpses. It’s set in an oddly believable and absolutely dystopian USA in various stages of societal collapse and under surveillance by deviously cute robots and drones. In this digital panopticon world ruled by hackers, there’s nowhere to hide from CCTV cameras everywhere, a true horror.

Fortunately, this novel is not all dark as a black hole. Loyal pit bull Flip is a beautiful dog companion. There’s a nice rift of music threaded through the storyline. There was admirable thought given to naming the cast of characters in the story. Our main guy is known by everything from Willie Bare, Jr. to Nature Boy to Davis Dowty to Will Bear, and so on. Folks who recall encountering Tom Robbins novels in the 70’s will note a funny callback with a character named Tim Ribbons. A chain of stores is cleverly called “Dollar Dangle” – no truer name. And honestly, it is wonderfully written, perfect for the summer of 2022.

I loved the hell out of this novel. You pulled it off, and bless your heart, Dan Chaon.

This is the best ARC I’ve received from LibraryThing’s Early Reviewer program. Many thanks! show less

“Thinking of You in Your Time of Sorrow”

Death and sadness in the heartland. Mortality is a constant presence in this collection of stories, sometimes crouching in a distant corner or looming over every perfectly framed sentence. This is a gallery of troubled souls, dealing with a parasitic baby, a brain-damaged husband, suicide, infanticide, various car wrecks, capital punishment and the forlorn parade shuffles on.
Spread out, through various towns and cities, from Ohio to Nebraska, these show more characters struggle with loneliness, a regrettable past and isolation.
Sounds like a bright Spring read, huh? Well, don’t reach for the rope and chair quite yet. There is a dark beauty here. Gorgeous writing and an uncanny understanding of human grief and pain. Each story drew me in, sometimes reluctantly and with every precise, haunting word, made me look to the skies and appreciate the good life that I possess. show less

(45) This was really gripping. Three intertwined stories of young people at a crossroads of sorts. Life not turning out the way they thought and escaping into other identities; into an underworld of identity theft rings and international computer hacking and embezzlement. I guess on the surface it sounds cheesy but it was really nicely done with some gravitas mixed in regarding the self, the occult, mental illness. What makes us who we are? Our name, our connections, our memories. . . ?

I show more flew through this in about 24 hours it was so engaging and one really wanted to figure out how the three stories would eventually connect. Each new parallel, or connection between the stories made one obsess (there was a lot about obsession in this book) regarding reading more and figuring things out. Anyone who ever had a sibling and an imagination could relate to Miles and Hayden's fantasy worlds and it was haunting to bear witness as he spun out of control. Chaon's depiction of schizophrenia I found to be very true to what I have seen as a physician.

Anyway, I have only ever read 'Ill Will' by Chaon which was good but not at this level. I am going to find the rest of his novels right now! show less

This novel tells three stories in alternating chapters, each of which begins with a car ride: A young man, bleeding badly, is being rushed to a hospital through the rural woods of Michigan. A nineteen-year-old girl, having just recently graduated high school, is running off to Nebraska with her former high school history teacher. And another man is driving through Canada in search of his long-missing twin brother, who might or might be not schizophrenic. At first, none of these stories show more appear to have much of anything to do with each other, but it becomes more and more apparent as the novel goes on that they are intimately tied together...

I enjoyed this a lot. It's got a corker of an opening, and it just keeps going from there, with the intriguing hints of connection between these three very different stories making for a puzzle whose answers creep up on you gradually in an interesting and satisfying way. It's also very well-written, with vivid characters and pages that just seem to fly by. If it weren't for annoying little things like sleep and work, I think I could easily have finished this in one sitting. show less