Wednesday, July 18, 2012

You & Me-Padgett Powell

You & Me


Padgett Powell

Ecco, Jul 31 2012, $23.99

ISBN: 9780062126139



Somewhere spiritually near Bakersfield and geographically near Jacksonville, the dudes sit on a porch in a Mayberry of the mind near a liquor bunker in a rundown area debating anything and everything. They argue over who had the worst childhood, the impact of suicide, and visiting the creek to challenge Despair in a staring contest to see who first looks away. However, moseying to the creek or the liquor bunker requires action, but that word is a noun not a verb. No one intercedes as the puissant porch philosophers ponder the nano gnats like the extinction of barber poles and critical giants of the universe like Mansfield’s smothering cup size.



Filled with word play and no action, You & Me is an intriguing metaphysical tale that raises difficult questions (with open answers) to key life issues that range from the true meaning of "Be neat, be brave, be Buster-Brown Bustamante" to “are we free? and “are we perfect?” Not for everyone, readers who appreciate something radically different and passive will enjoy Padgett Powell’s dialogue of the absurd as the two dudes apply The Interrogative Mood to be or not to be.



Harriet Klausner

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