On a windy September day, twenty-five-year-old Slater Brown stands in the back of a bicycle taxi hurtling the wrong way down the busiest street in San Francisco. Slater has come to “see the elephant,” to stake his claim to fame and become the greatest writer ever. But this city of gleaming water and infinite magic has other plans in this astounding first novel—at once a love story, a feast of literary imagination, and a dazzlingly original tale of passion, ambition, and genius in all their guises...

Slater Brown lays siege to San Francisco like Achilles circling Troy—until he crashes headlong into reality. Out of money and prospects, he applies for a job at a moribund weekly newspaper called the Morning Trumpet—and, as if by fate, is given a very special parting gift from a moonlighting mystic.

Suddenly Slater has an exclusive on every story in the city. With his uncanny knack for finding scoops, he’s bringing the Trumpet back to life, infuriating a corrupt mayor and falling in love with the woman destined to become his muse. But it is the astonishing inventor Milo Magnet—a man obsessed with harnessing the weather—who will force Slater to navigate the most dangerous straits.

For as Milo unleashes his power on San Francisco and the ravishing Callio de Quincy entrances Slater with hers, as storm clouds gather literally overhead, Slater will become at once a pawn, a savior, and the last best hope for a city that needs him—and his knack for the truth—more than ever before.

"Fishburne's zany and entertaining, if somewhat uneven, first novel tells the story of Slater Brown: Writer Extraordinaire (at least in his own mind), as he whimsically romps through San Francisco. Slater arrives in the city with little more than the clothes on his back and a 250-pound trunk of books. He soon finds himself employed at a down and out newspaper called the Morning Trumpet, where, with the aid of a mystic known as Answer Man and a corrupt-beyond-belief mayoral administration, Slater becomes the journalistic toast of the town. Add a beautiful chess champion as romantic interest and a genius inventor intent on manipulating the weather, and you have the recipe for a generous and whacky story in the tradition of Tom Robbins. At times Fishburne has trouble maintaining so many moving parts; the inventor story line can feel extraneous, and the love story takes a while to get going. But what saves the book is its sweetness and innocence, and the depiction of Slater in the big city is a pleasure." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

“Rodes Fishburne is a marksman hunting down first-novel fame, and he never misses.”Tom Wolfe

“Every single page of this book brought a smile to my face. Rodes Fishburne is a keen observer of the world with a rosy imagination and a mammoth heart. Going to See the Elephant is an absolute winner.”Davy Rothbart, creator of Found Magazine

“Rodes Fishburne has written a wildly energetic, engaging, and smart first novel, set in a city he clearly knows and loves. From start to finish Going to See the Elephant is top- drawer fun, and an impressive debut.”Tom Barbash author of The Last Good Chance

Rodes Fishburne has been published in the New Yorker, the New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle Magazine, and Forbes ASAP, where he was the editor of the acclaimed “Big Issue,” an annual magazine of literary essays from leading writers and thinkers. He is a member of the Grotto, a San Francisco writers’ collective. Going to See the Elephant is his first novel.