Synopses & Reviews
"'You'll want to scratch.'" These spoken words open to us the strange and beguiling world of young Rudy Spruance, forced to join the military due to a mysterious past, and sent for some unexplainable reason to a top-secret military hospital in Greenland. There he meets a wide cast of unusual and colorful characters, outcasts and rejects all, begins to fall for the commanding officer's leggy and strong-willed girlfriend, and slowly uncovers the awful secret behind the portion of the base dubbed "the Wing." He has been assigned to start a base newspaper - to tell the stories of the men and women of Qangattarsa, Greenland - but when Rudy probes too far, when he asks the wrong questions of the wrong people, strange events begin to happen.
This is a world where glaciers crouch on the horizon, icebergs float along the bay, and polar bears must be chased away from the base's dump. It is also a place where conflicting forces intersect, where history, so long held at bay, begins to encroach, and a place that in several month's time will be submerged in an endless night, affectionately termed "The Stark Raving Dark." What begins as a harmless exploration turns into a deadly cat-and-mouse adventure, and Rudy must finally uncover the truths of the base, rescue the people that he loves, and somehow escape the arctic alive.
An amazing debut novel about the lost places of the world and history, about the ultimate power of mischief and truth, and about the absurdity of the military, John Griesemer's No One Thinks of Greenland signals the imaginative salvo of a great new voice in fiction.
Review
"A fever-dream of a novel, destined to become a Cold War classic." John Sayles, director of Lone Star and author of The Anarchists' Convention
Review
"The sign of a great book? The urge to look ahead, to see if certain characters are still persevering, to see if the madness has abated or escalated. The tension in No One Thinks of Greenland was excruciating, and the characters were totally alive. This is Catch-22, Vonnegut, and as alluded to in the book, even a bit like The Thing! And at the core of it? A love story, and a wonderful one at that.... Holy shit, what a book!" Carl Lennertz, Book Sense
Review
“Whats not to love about this intricately imagined and altogether delightful first novel?...
No One Thinks of Greenland is that rarest of first-novel achievements:an across-the-board success.” —
Esquire“A powerful look at the madness of war and its aftermath...Griesemer has created a poignant novel, with a soupçon of sassy and irreverent humor.” —The Denver Post
“We are in the military screw-up novel....No One Thinksof Greenland contributes wit and wildness of its own, sharpened by the authors gait, all verve and jolt....He hurtles us right in....Griesemer has written a novel with a distinctive cutting vision [and] alluring puzzlement.” —The New York Times Book Review
“Dramatic...mystery spiced with romance.” —Chicago Tribune
“Griesemer proceeds to savagely send up the military... No One Thinks of Greenland effectively skewers the excesses of the early Cold War mentality.” —The Washington Post Book World
“A fever-dream of a novel, destined to become a Cold War classic.” —John Sayles
“An intelligent first novel....The book recalls the topsy-turvy military worlds of Catch-22 and M*A*S*H.... Compelling.” —Publishers Weekly
“This is a terrific—possibly great—first novel....A quirky, affecting, and powerful read.” —Booklist (starred review)
“A terrific and compelling first novel, haunting andbeautifully imagined, that hovers between the real and the apocalyptic. Griesemer pulls off the enviable trickof creating a place that gradually becomes a place werecognize from our dreams.” —George Saunders
“Absolutely the best tragicomic literary war candy since Terry Southerns Dr. Strangelove. Literary hijinks laced with the cyanide of truth.” —Tom Paine
Synopsis
“Youll want to scratch.” These spoken words open to us the strange and beguiling world of young Rudy Spruance, forced to join the military due to a mysterious past, and sent for some inexplicable reason to a top-secret military hospital in Greenland. There he meets a wide cast of unusual and colorful characters, outcasts and rejects all; begins to fall for the commanding officers leggy and strong-willed girlfriend; and slowly uncovers the awful secret behind the portion of the base dubbed “the Wing.”
About the Author
JOHN GRIESEMER's fiction has been published in Glimmer Train, Gettysburg Review, Threepenny Review and elsewhere. He has worked as mental hospital orderly, a fisherman, and a journalist. He is an actor and has appeared on and off-Broadway and in television and film, including Malcolm X, Days of Thunder, and The Crucible. He lives with his family in New Hampshire. NO ONE THINKS OF GREENLAND is his first novel.