Synopses & Reviews
Set in the mythological land of Dayton, Ohio, Artificial Lightis part historical novel, part science fiction, part sociological study, part murder mystery. Stunningly written in prose that is poetic, gripping, and highly adventurous, Artificial Light may be the first American novel to successfully treat the alternative rock scene of the 1990s as a subject for serious literature. James Greer has written a novel at once completely original in its form, composition, and outlook and yet as classically pleasurable and informative as any work of contemporary fiction in memory.
In 1994, a young woman named Fiat Lux donates twenty-one notebooks full of her writings to a university library and then disappears. It's only later that her close relationship with a well known rock musician who had recently committed suicide is discovered, and the notebook's contents become the subject of growing fascination, conjecture, and gossip. Intending to satisfy the public's insatiable curiosity about the rock star and throw light on the author's rumored involvement in his now infamous death, and, more importantly, hoping to make a case for her remarkable writings as a work of literature, the university's press has decided to publish her notebooks in a single volume under the title she had given them, Artificial Light.
James Greer, a novelist and screenwriter, has written for Spin, Tennis Magazine, Sunfish Holy Breakfast, and Larry the Cable Guy. He is the author of Guided by Voices: A Brief History: Twenty-one Years of Hunting Accidents in the Forests of Rock 'n'Roll(Grove Press, 2005). He lives in Los Angeles.
"Greer does a superb job of transcending conventional genrefication, bringing something fresh to contemporary literature . . . A very enjoyable read [with a] highly inventive structure, full of eccentricities and rock music factoids..." - Library Journal
"Artifical Light skates on the purity of confession. It's a brutal reveal; an Abyss Narrative with hooks. Read it in a rush of abomination and rise above, rise above." --Stephen Malkmus
"When is flight not-flight? How does a dead (very dead) celebrity manage to be not-dead? Why are Dayton, Ohio, and not-Dayton so endgame-compatible? James Greer eats being and non-being for breakfast, and his tale is one of Parmenidian oompah and shebang. As apocalyptic page-turners go, Artificial Light beats the bejeezus out of the last dozen Thomas Pynchons, the last nineteen Don DeLillos, and the last forty-three Kurt Vonneguts. I wouldn't shit ya."- Richard Meltzer, author of A Whore Just Like the Rest
"Fiat Lux gleams like an onyx from a vivid and darkly mythical world. She is impossible to forget and her skewed cynicism and solipsistic melancholy linger long after you've turned the final page. Greer's writing is lean and poetic, shot through with sagacious observations and demented humor, but at the heart of his strange semi-sci fi world there is a huge human tenderness, moments of heart-rending lyrical beauty, and a rabid, breathtaking imagination."- Helen Walsh, author of Brass
Synopsis
"
Artificial Light beats the
bejeezus out of the last dozen Thomas Pynchons, the last nineteen Don DeLillos, and the last forty-three Kurt Vonneguts."--Richard Meltzer
Stunningly written in prose that is poetic, gripping, and highly adventurous, Artificial Light may be the first American novel to successfully treat the alternative rock scene of the 1990s as a subject for serious literature.
James Greer, a novelist and screenwriter, has written for Spin, Tennis Magazine, Sunfish Holy Breakfast, and Paris Hilton. He is the author of Guided by Voices: A Brief History: Twenty-One Years of Hunting Accidents in the Forests of Rock 'n' Roll (Grove, 2005). He lives in Los Angeles.
Synopsis
"Greer does a superb job of transcending conventional genrefication, bringing something fresh to contemporary literature . . . A very enjoyable read with a] highly inventive structure, full of eccentricities and rock music factoids . . ." --Library Journal
In 1994, a young woman named Fiat Lux donates twenty-one notebooks full of her writings to a university library and then disappears. It's only later that her close relationship with a well known rock musician who had recently committed suicide is discovered, and the notebook's contents become the subject of growing fascination, conjecture, and gossip. Intending to satisfy the public's insatiable curiosity about the rock star and throw light on the author's rumored involvement in his now infamous death, and, more importantly, hoping to make a case for her remarkable writings as a work of literature, the university's press has decided to publish her notebooks in a single volume under the title she had given them, Artificial Light.
Set in the mythological land of Dayton, Ohio, Artificial Light is part historical novel, part science fiction, part sociological study, part murder mystery. Stunningly written in prose that is poetic, gripping, and highly adventurous, Artificial Light may be the first American novel to successfully treat the alternative rock scene of the 1990s as a subject for serious literature. James Greer has written a novel at once completely original in its form, composition, and outlook and yet as classically pleasurable and informative as any work of contemporary fiction in memory.
Synopsis
James Greer's fiction debut is the latest in Dennis Cooper's groundbreaking "Little House on the Bowery" series.
Synopsis
Fiction. James Greer's fiction debut is the latest in Dennis Cooper's groundbreaking Little House on the Bowery series. Stunningly written in prose that is poetic, gripping, and highly adventurous, ARTIFICIAL LIGHT may be the first American novel to successfully treat the alternative rock scene of the 1990s as a subject for serious literature. "ARTIFICIAL LIGHT beats the bejeezus out of the last dozen Thomas Pynchons, the last nineteen Don DeLillos, and the last forty-three Kurt Vonneguts"--Richard Meltzer. James Greer has written a novel at once completely original in its form, composition and outlook and yet as classically pleasurable and informative as any work of contemporary fiction in memory.
About the Author
James Greer is the author of the novel Artificial Light (Akashic 2006), which won a California Book Award for Best Debut Novel, and the nonfiction book Guided By Voices: A Brief History (Grove Press 2006), a biography about a band for which he once played bass guitar. He is currently working with director Steven Soderbergh on a rock musical. Dennis Cooper is the author of 'The George Miles Cycle,' an interconnected sequence of five novels published in the US by Grove Press and translated into fourteen languages. His most recent novel is God, Jr. (Grove, 2005). He lives in Los Angeles.