Important Note: This post is dated Sunday, December 25, 2011, and the titles mentioned here may remain free only until midnight PST tonight.
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… a well-realized portrait of conflict and forgiveness …
In “Undrawn”, the imminent death of his tyrannical father Brandon forces frail, thirty-six-year-old painter Kyle to return to his boyhood home after a self-imposed exile. While there, the past catches up to the son, and he finds himself facing old family rifts, former girlfriends, crimes of passion, and, most of all, the overwhelming urge to be loved and accepted. Conchie Fernandez’s debut novel shifts between the past and present as Kyle seeks absolution in a world where many factors are unknown.The protagonist’s struggles are witnessed by his sneering brother Stuart, who has secrets of his own, his affectionate brother Troy, and his selfless mother, Norma, who possesses more concern about Kyle’s diabetes than about her own emotional well-being in the wake of Brandon’s death. Also populating the story are Kyle’s contacts in the art world, as well as past and present lovers, all with distinct traits.
As a former newspaper editor and present-day creative writing teacher, Fernandez eloquently captures the subtleties of human relationships. Readers clearly see the protagonist hurting because of his father’s control, even as he holds out hope that Brandon will someday acknowledge his art.
Art isn’t the only thing about Kyle that Brandon fails to accept; he does not believe that his son is truly ill. To hear Brandon accuse Kyle, a diabetic, of trying to manipulate his father’s emotions by having an attack is truly horrifying. When juxtaposed against Norma and Troy’s caring attitude toward the sickly Kyle, Brandon’s indifference becomes all the more cruel. Kyle and Troy behave like real brothers. Beneath their profanity-laced dialogue brims love and protectiveness. In a novel loaded with machismo, it is refreshing to see Troy and Kyle hug, both in the past and the present.
“Undrawn” refreshes the trope of the tortured artist. Readers see how Kyle is haunted by his past while he suffers from occasional diabetic attacks. Kyle’s physical and mental suffering is poignantly rendered, although occasionally his diabetic attacks seem like convenient plot devices. Fernandez masterfully immerses readers in the world of Kyle’s canvas, so that they paint right along with the artist.
On the whole, “Undrawn” is a well-realized portrait of conflict and forgiveness. –****Jill Allen, Clarion ForeWord Review, Apr. 23, 2011 (Excerpt)
Here’s the set-up:
Kyle Reed stands on the verge of his lifelong dream of artistic immortality when a call from his estranged older brother Stuart puts a halt to everything in his carefully constructed life. Kyle faces the impossible decision to go back “home” and attempt to undo the many painful choices he made that severed his ties with his family and the woman he once loved.
As he steps into the house he grew up in, Kyle revisits the lives he led. He walks through the elegant rooms where he learned to keep quiet to avoid his father’s temper, and dealt with the debilitating disease that opened the doorway to his art. In his journey through his past, he assesses the perilous habits that distanced him from his family, the bitter enmities that still ravage his peace, and the surprising loyalty he finds in the people who surround him.
Kyle juggles with the present and the past and he clings to sanity through his art, the passion that has become his true north. Between the sculptures and images that fill his spaces and canvases, lie the crucial aspects of his life that he’s been avoiding for years: the icon he destroyed, the crime that still fills him with shame, and the forgiveness he never offered…or received.
A smart, entertaining send-up of celebrity under siege. ––KIRKUS
Rock Star’s Rainbow
by Kevin Glavin
NAMED TO KIRKUS REVIEWS’ BEST OF 2011!“A rock star searching for his soul embarks on an underworld picaresque in this gonzo satirical romance … A smart, entertaining send-up of celebrity under siege.” –KIRKUS REVIEWS
“Glavin…teaches English in California. He pull[s] from his extensive knowledge of literature for the book which contains allusions to classic works…Even if readers miss the references, they can still enjoy the story.” –Naperville Sun
“Explores stardom and scandals … the story has a tragic element along with its humorous theme. [Rook’s] journey takes him from Los Angeles to Amsterdam and India with twists and turns along the way.” –Claremont Courier
Product Description NAMED TO KIRKUS REVIEWS’ BEST OF 2011!
In August 2009, a renowned entertainment reporter was thrown out of a plane over Los Angeles. At the time of his unfortunate death, he was working on a manuscript detailing the strange personal life of one of the most secretive celebrities of our time––Rook. Luckily, this work-in-progress was rescued, although the details surrounding the case remain obscure. Now, assembled here, is that most sought after exposé of the infamous rock star, searching for his lost innocence. Come along and join the quixotic adventure, as it journeys from LA, to Amsterdam, to India, and back. Along the way, Rook struggles with celebrity excess, reignites with his old flame, gets mixed up with the mafia, and must rescue the daughter he never knew he had. From the heights of hedonism, to the depths of despair, this topical parody explores that beast called fame.
For readers interested in literary allusions, this satire is in part a pastiche, paying homage to elements of “Don Quixote,” “Either/Or,” “Ulysses,” “Satyricon,” “Crime and Punishment,” and other works.
REVIEWS:
A rock star searching for his soul embarks on an underworld picaresque in this gonzo satirical romance.
Rook Heisenberg, frontman for the stupefyingly vapid band the Little Bang, experiences every facet of rock-star life—the adoring fans, the glitzy mansion, the three-ways with random bimbos—and a dazed sense of anomie, salved only by memories of his long-lost high-school sweetheart Hula. Once an Internet search and an e-mail reforge that link, Rook is off to Amsterdam, where he discovers that Hula has become the moll of Svidrigailov, a Russian gangster who has put her to work in his brothel, and that Rook and Hula have a teenage daughter named Boudicca, whom Svidrigailov has sequestered in Mumbai. Accompanied by his bodyguard, a beautiful Chinese woman who is as blasé about mass killings as she is about group sex, Rook sets out for India to rescue Boudicca from white slavery. There he is overwhelmed by street urchins, Bollywood stars, menacing thugs who melt when he croons to them, and a pharmaceutical consciousness-raiser so potent that it threatens to destroy his narcissistic cocoon. Rook’s quest gives the author a broad canvas for a funny, sardonic portrait of fame at its most inescapable: as he dispenses autographs and $100 bills to an ever-changing throng of autograph-seekers and flunkies who secretly despise him, he’s constantly confronted with billboards of himself hawking his fashion line. Glavin tells the story with a polished prose style and threads it with intriguing allusions to everything from magic squares to Van Gogh and Dostoevsky. Amid the breezy, Tarantino-esque provocations, he smuggles pathos into Rook’s search for family and meaning, though the debauches and dismemberments proceed in such a casual, jaded tone that they drain some of the novel’s emotional charge. But this diverting, imaginative read keeps the pages turning.