A hyperliterate prisoner who’s barricaded in his sanctuary
whereas a riot unfolds writes his final phrases.
Properly-versed pop-culture author Chapman (Dialog Sparks,
2015) gives a debut novel that’s as eccentric because it comes but additionally fitfully
humorous and murderously wry in its humor. Our imprisoned narrator is, as occurs
in a whole lot of transgressive comedian novels, anonymous however for his jail moniker,
“MF.” There’s actually no character right here—we solely be taught our anonymous narrator is
an immigrant from Sri Lanka whose earlier gig was working as a doorman in New
York Metropolis—however he serves as a handy cipher who permits the creator to
wax poetic concerning the function of literature in society and the blunt cruelty of the
American jail system whereas enabling his capricious doppelgänger to pen arch
reminiscences of his paramours. These embody the now-bitterly despised Betsy
Pankhurst, with whom, in a flashback, the narrator has an intimately described
conjugal go to, and a fellow prisoner named McNairy, with whom he has what he
calls a “meet-cute.” It seems that our narrator is the editor of a preferred
jail journal aptly dubbed The Holding Pen, and apparently considered one of
his missives has triggered the very riot that now threatens his life. The e-book
is purposefully messy—the prose is breathless, meandering, and riddled with pop-culture
references and responses to real-time occasions on platforms like Instagram and
Reddit, which the narrator has entry to as editor of the paper—however Chapman
demonstrates an arch humor that mimics French existentialism as a lot because it does
conventional American satire. It’s even straightforward to achieve an odd affection for our
superarrogant narrator regardless of his supercilious tone and his sentence, which
is, as we be taught late within the sport, for doing one thing genuinely horrible. This
is actually not a e-book for informal readers, however those that admire a
genuinely unique stylist and acidly darkish humor will discover it an odd deal with.
A frenzied but wistful monologue from a lover of literature
below siege.
