Cliche Magazine Oct/Nov 2014 | Page 69
BOOKWORM | FALL READS
A Map of Tulsa
BY BENJAMIN LYTAL
Jim Praley is driftless,
searching, wondering what
his next step should be.
He’s home for the summer
after his freshman year of
college, which was his fallback plan since internships,
a job, or a real purpose never
materialized. Now he’s back
in Tulsa after telling his
parents that he’s taking the
summer to read and work on
his life.
He’s
searching
for something to do and
decides that thing is what
he was always raised not
to do: he goes to the bar, he
awkwardly orders a drink—a
big no-no for his family—and
starts looking for something
new in the town he always
thought was a dull, boring,
predictable place. That’s
where he meets Edith, a
girl who was in his high
school class, and her friend,
Cam. Edith brings him to a
party where he re-meets the
elusive Adrienne, previously
a mere acquaintance. Jim is
immediately intrigued by her,
and he follows this group into
another party, into a basement
room to do drugs while the
party is going on, and he
then follows Adrienne around
when their halves of the pill
don’t have the desired effect.
They end up running through
backyards and giving Jim a
night that will change the rest
of his life.
This is Benjamin
Lytal’s first novel. In two
parts—the first including his
attempts with Adrienne and
the second detailing his life
five years later—Lytal shows
the desperation that Jim has
for his life to really mean
something. And let’s face it:
haven’t we all felt that way?
At times, Jim is a little too
much, which works more than
it doesn’t. He takes himself
very seriously, something that
from the outside might not be
understandable, but perfectly
captures the angst of that age.
Stylistically, I felt
that some sentences in the
book are in serious need of
explanatory commas, but
other than that the writing is
beautiful, if purposeless. Jim
is drifting and the reader drifts
along with him. If you want
to read a book with expansive
prose written for a character
with the mind of a poet who
is clearly in love with words
himself, this is the book for
you.
©Crown
©Penguin Books
BOOK CORNER
GONE GIRL
BY GILLIAN FLYNN
“What are you thinking,
Amy?” This is something
Nick Dunne wonders almost
every day. It is a thought
most people can relate to; that
person so close to you, who
knows you so well... what are
they thinking? What it in that
brain of theirs?
Lance
Nicholas
“Nick” Dunne and Amy Elliot
Dunne are an explosive,
almost
nuclear
couple.
Mississippi boy Nick Dunne,
a magazine writer, and Amy
Elliot, Manhattanite beauty
and inspiration behind the
Amazing Amy children's book
series her two psychologist
parents wrote, seem like
a perfect match. But for
an explosive couple, the
detonation has to happen
sometime.
When
Amy
disappears
and
Nick
looks to be facing serious
consequences for her apparent
murder, both of their stories
begin to unravel. Maybe it
was the loss of Nick's job as a
journalist and Amy's job as a
magazine quiz writer. Maybe
it was the loss of Amy's trust
fund. Maybe it was the move
back to Mississippi to take
care of Nick's cancer-sick
mother and Alzheimer'sridden father. Maybe it was
Amy's distaste for her new life
in Nick's tiny hometown after
a glitzy New York childhood
and early adulthood. Maybe
it was Nick starting a bar
with his twin sister, Margo
“Go” Dunne. Whatever it
was, somethi