I have a review up at Bookslut for Jamie S. Rich's novel, Have You Seen the Horizon Lately? This one flew way under the radar last year, probably because it came out from Oni Press which is known primarily as a comics/gn publisher. It's about a former young literary wonder who in the wake of his wife's suicide vanished from public life (actually pretty much vanished, period). His books have become fodder for grad student discussions and one of them goes looking for him and discovers his hiding place in Bejing. What follows is the slow building of a relationship based on literature and literary discussion as well as a lot of flashbacks about how it is to be discovered and acclaimed as a young writer. Here's a bit of my review:
There were many things about this novel that I enjoyed but what really surprised me is that Rich was careful to make Iris [the deceased wife] a full and real part of the story. It would have been very easy to dismiss her as the long dead wife and only show her through Percy’s memories, but instead, in the flashback sequences, Iris is revealed as just as smart and vibrant as her husband. Making her a significant part of the story adds a depth to Percy’s loss, and explains a great deal about why he collapsed in the wake of her death.
The author also does an excellent job of showing how someone can come undone in his portrayal of Percy. This is a man who has thoroughly and totally cracked up even to the point of becoming a bit of a clichéd cat-person, and when he tries to communicate with Julia the only way he knows how -- by the choice of novels he leaves for her -- readers will find themselves understanding him in a deeply personal way. If you want to know me, really know me, then look at my bookshelves. This is something Rich understands and he shows it through Percy.
Have You Seen the Horizon Lately? is a look into the literary jet set, the sort of life that demands no regrets or apologies from the players who live in its limelight. It’s a unique story told in an undeniably cool way. Rich taps into a sensibility that makes one want to write enigmatic novels that grad students will endlessly argue about but likely never understand. He knows who we all want to be and shows us what that would be like. The fact that it isn’t a necessarily happy story is immaterial, it is still a true one and at its heart, a hopeful one. There is just something about Jamie S. Rich that makes him a writer to watch.
The whole time I was reading Horizon I kept thinking that this was exactly the kind of book that Jess would have been carrying around in Star's Hollow. He would have loved how Percy falls so hard after dipping too deep at the well of fandom and then uses books to communicate with Julia. And Rory would have been all over Julia - that's who Rory is to a certain degree; a committed student who would stop at nothing to uncover the truth about an author who meant to so much to her.
Of course that is Rory before Logan and as annoying as I sometimes found Jess I can't help but think that they belonged together, but I digress.
Horizon is a hipster novel all the way and perfect for witty and slightly subversive teens. It will make them feel like rebels when they're reading it and incredibly smart for "getting it". I'm adding it to the list for the You Should Read This Awards, but more importantly I hope that my review brings it some attention. A lot of YA fiction is the same stories over and over again; it's nice to read a book (even though it's written for adults) that will appeal to them in a completely different way.
