This is a visceral story, set in a drug fueled modern day New York City, in a backdrop of seedy clubs, even seedier theatres, insanity inducing films and fallen angels. It's not a tale for the faint of heart. There is violence aplenty, explicit sex scenes and drug taking. One scene in particular near the end made even me wince.
J Daniel Stone is a brand new name to me so I came to this with o expectations of any sort. The prose is disjointed, but deliberately so. It's sometimes difficult to know exactly what is happening. What is part of some drug induced nightmare and what is really happening to the charaters. Or is their reality so blurred that it's all real?
The story revolves around Bok, an addict, desperate for money who accepts a call late at night to a theatre where he once again meets Laurenz, an old German film maker in whose film A Chronology of Decay he played an important part. He was introduced originally to Laurenz by his impossibly beautiful boyfriend Jared with whom he shared his entire life, his love and his drug habit.
The story of the his part in the film is told in flashbacks. The timeline is fractured beyond breaking point but as the picture emerges of what is probably happening, this only adds to the feeling of nightmare.
This is almost like a David Lynch movie set to paper. I wasn't surprised to see Kathe Koja mentioned in the afterword to the story as one of his mentors in the industry. I will definitely be looking out for his other work.
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