Hystopia A Novel (Audible Audio Edition) David Means Nicholas Techosky Audible Studios Books
Download As PDF : Hystopia A Novel (Audible Audio Edition) David Means Nicholas Techosky Audible Studios Books
At the bitter end of the 1960s, after surviving multiple assassination attempts, President John F. Kennedy is entering his third term in office. The Vietnam War rages on, and the president has created a vast federal agency, the Psych Corps, dedicated to maintaining the nation's mental hygiene by any means necessary. Soldiers returning from the war have their battlefield traumas "enfolded" - wiped from their memories through drugs and therapy - while veterans too damaged to be enfolded roam at will in Michigan, evading the government and reenacting atrocities on civilians.
This destabilized version of American history is the vision of 22-year-old Eugene Allen, who has returned from Vietnam to write the book-within-a-book at the center of Hystopia. In conversation with some of the greatest war narratives, from Homer's Iliad to the Rolling Stones' "Gimme Shelter", David Means channels the voice of Allen, the young veteran out to write a novel that can bring honor to those he fought with in Vietnam while also capturing the tragic history of his own family.
The critic James Wood has written that Means' language "offers an exquisitely precise and sensuous register of an often crazy American reality". In Hystopia, his highly anticipated first novel, David Means brings his full talent to bear on the crazy reality of trauma, both national and personal. Outlandish and tender, funny and violent, timely and historical, Hystopia invites us to consider whether our traumas can ever be truly overcome. The answers it offers are wildly inventive, deeply rooted in its characters, and wrung from the author's own heart.
Hystopia A Novel (Audible Audio Edition) David Means Nicholas Techosky Audible Studios Books
Hystopia is one of those books that’s hard for me to rate, because I appreciate it more than I actually enjoyed reading it. It’s a complex, mindfuck of a novel that pays homage to some of the most memorable works of postmodernist fiction from the late 20th century.Here’s where I try to tell you what it’s about. Okay, so it’s the late 1960s, the Vietnam War is raging on, and Kennedy is about to enter his third term in office. In this revisionist history, the U.S. government has created a federal agency called Psych Corps tasked with addressing the mental health crisis that plagues returning veterans. This treatment is pretty much Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind for war veterans: they administer a drug combined with immersive therapy that, when successful, erases their memories.
Hystopia follows two separate by related plot lines, destined to converge: In one plot line, Rake, a disturbed veteran who resisted treatment, kidnaps a mentally ill woman named Meg and takes her along with him on a deranged killing spree. Meanwhile, two Psych Corps agents — one of whom underwent the treatment himself — fall in love and find themselves on a mission to track down Rake.
But the strangest thing is that the story might not actually be about what we think it’s about — because, as we find out right up front, Hystopia is actually a story within a story, written by a veteran named Eugene trying to process his own grief.
Sound weird yet? It definitely is. As I was reading it, I kept thinking to myself, “I really hope this all comes together in a satisfying way.” It’s a very challenging book, so as a reader, you kind of need that satisfaction to justify the effort. Luckily, it delivered.
I can’t say that I fully understand what I just read, but I can tell you that it evoked all sorts of deep emotions in me anyway. When it comes down to it, it’s a sad story that confronts heavy, important themes — from war trauma and mental illness to grief and love — leaving us to question the depths of our own resilience.
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Hystopia A Novel (Audible Audio Edition) David Means Nicholas Techosky Audible Studios Books Reviews
Almost every review of Hystopia begins with some mention of JFK surviving through the 60s and multiple assassination attempts. This is the backdrop of the novel, and it is important to the story, but it really doesn’t define the novel. A better introduction would begin with a quote from the author of the novel within the novel, Eugene Allen “Anger had reached a boiling point; factors included the devaluation of the blue-collar worker, the destruction of factory infrastructure, and large numbers of wayward vets and minorities seeking justice” (p. 315). Allen is describing the motivation behind the frustration felt by the people of Michigan, but he might as well be describing the frustration of current-day Americans.
Hystopia is a “war novel,” in vein of Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, but it’s also several love stories wound together, it’s about executive overreach, it’s a man-hunt, an investigation, a mystery, and a tale of hope and frustration. The characters struggle to reclaim memories, to find themselves and figure out how they fit into relationships, their work, and their nation. More than anything, it’s a novel about trauma—individual trauma, familial trauma, local trauma, and national trauma—and each character wrestles with how to come to terms with his or her own trauma.
Means’ home state of Michigan stands in for the nation during the transition from the Summer of Love to the Summer of Hate, and through the struggles of the Civil Rights movement. The historically accurate Detroit Fires instead rage through the entire state and reflect the anger and frustration of the nation. This flashpoint is also mirrored by the rise of the punk movement. Punk is ever-present throughout the novel via an Ann Arbor radio station that only plays Iggy Pop and the Stooges. Though such a channel didn’t really exist, it should have. Whatever “love” psychedelia ushered in to the nation, punk was a middle finger to the establishment and an expression of the frustration felt by so many. In a novel that makes literary allusions to The Wasteland, Flannery O’Connor, Melville, and others, it should be no surprise that the Iggy All The Time radio station is what the characters—good and evil—in Hystopia seek out for comfort and consolation.
I've long been a rabid fan of Means' short stories--I have all his collections. I was curious to see what he'd do with his first novel and was delighted to find it somewhat of an ambitious expansion of a short story he published in The New Yorker titled "The Spot"--also the title story for the collection of the same name.
It is very difficult to write fiction this layered and complex yet still keep it accessible. But this is how Means writes and I, for one, love it. In the annals of what I call "speculative historical fiction," this one will be remembered alongside Roth's The Plot Against America. However, rather than take the plot device at face value, Means almost lovingly polishes even the most depraved character into stunning full development. There's mystery, humor, suspense and beautiful descriptions/dialogue throughout.
Means may well be on his way to crafting an interconnected mythology of work, much like Roberto Bolaño--who, like Means, was also a poet. Seems strange to say, but if Walt Whitman were to write a Vietnam novel with a Pharmaceutical Apocalypse, it just might resemble Hystopia.
Hystopia is one of those books that’s hard for me to rate, because I appreciate it more than I actually enjoyed reading it. It’s a complex, mindfuck of a novel that pays homage to some of the most memorable works of postmodernist fiction from the late 20th century.
Here’s where I try to tell you what it’s about. Okay, so it’s the late 1960s, the Vietnam War is raging on, and Kennedy is about to enter his third term in office. In this revisionist history, the U.S. government has created a federal agency called Psych Corps tasked with addressing the mental health crisis that plagues returning veterans. This treatment is pretty much Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind for war veterans they administer a drug combined with immersive therapy that, when successful, erases their memories.
Hystopia follows two separate by related plot lines, destined to converge In one plot line, Rake, a disturbed veteran who resisted treatment, kidnaps a mentally ill woman named Meg and takes her along with him on a deranged killing spree. Meanwhile, two Psych Corps agents — one of whom underwent the treatment himself — fall in love and find themselves on a mission to track down Rake.
But the strangest thing is that the story might not actually be about what we think it’s about — because, as we find out right up front, Hystopia is actually a story within a story, written by a veteran named Eugene trying to process his own grief.
Sound weird yet? It definitely is. As I was reading it, I kept thinking to myself, “I really hope this all comes together in a satisfying way.” It’s a very challenging book, so as a reader, you kind of need that satisfaction to justify the effort. Luckily, it delivered.
I can’t say that I fully understand what I just read, but I can tell you that it evoked all sorts of deep emotions in me anyway. When it comes down to it, it’s a sad story that confronts heavy, important themes — from war trauma and mental illness to grief and love — leaving us to question the depths of our own resilience.
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