A Portable ChaosAWARD CITATION The story opens with a stream-of-consciousness flashback to a childhood incident that resembles James Joyce's "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man," which gains significance as the novel unfolds, and you come to appreciate it. The main character is a decent guy overflowing with untapped potential, who walks away from opportunities and the wrong sort of success and follows his bliss as a poet. After a pretty squalid time living "la vie Boheme" (vividly written, conjuring up the ghosts of 1960s' past, but squalid, nevertheless), he emerges from the slough and finds validation, the girl, fame, fortune, contentment, and reconciliation with all those pesky childhood demons. This was a well-plotted,well-characterized, and solidly written story. ~ |
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