Editorial Content for The One-Eyed Man
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Reviewer (text)
The premise of this very original novel seems to have grown out of these “fake news” times. As our protagonist says toward the end of THE ONE-EYED MAN, “I realized that the bread and butter of the modern newsman was opacity. When one has an endless succession of 24-hour news cycles to fill, the fewer known facts, the better.”
K. the book’s narrator, is a youngish widower who’s obsessed with telling his friends, strangers and, ultimately, his television audience that their long-cherished beliefs are based on incorrect assumptions. His rise to fame begins when he refuses to be considered a hero for rescuing a young coffee shop waitress in the way of a deranged armed robber. A producer sees him on the news and introduces the notion of a reality show in which K. tells a range of individuals why their firm opinions bear little relation to the facts. The show becomes a huge hit, mostly because the people K. confronts blame him for trying to destroy their delusions. K. seems mildly concerned by their overreaction, but can’t stop telling it like it is.
"This ambitious and impressive novel captures the daily dysfunction of modern life with humor and cynicism, even as it forces us to look beyond the distractions to larger truths. It’s quite an exhilarating journey."
As a result, K. is pummeled by a Shaolin monk, punched by an angry hillbilly, and finally kidnapped by a crowd of Texas gun enthusiasts who call themselves the Cold Dead Fingers Club. The scene at their compound where K. and his television assistant and lover, Claire, are taken evolves into a survivalist apocalypse worthy of a big budget movie. But the lead-up is bizarrely intimate and entertaining as Theodore, the club leader, speaks --- as do most of Ron Currie’s characters --- like an amateur philosopher, quoting, among others, Thomas Carlyle, whom he prefers to Bertrand Russell (who’s “a little too prim”).
THE ONE-EYED MAN tackles the big ideas and issues with vigor and often venom. The vacuousness of most people’s lives, especially in 21st-century America? Check. Sickness, death and the afterlife? Check. The symbiosis of reason and emotion? Check.
But the overarching theme here is how much we delude ourselves because we’re not strong enough for the truth. Much of this is played out in flashbacks from K.’s time with his dying wife, where he has to face what their marriage really meant to him and how her death has changed him.
This ambitious and impressive novel captures the daily dysfunction of modern life with humor and cynicism, even as it forces us to look beyond the distractions to larger truths. It’s quite an exhilarating journey.
Teaser
K. is possessed of a hyper-articulate exasperation with the world, a doomed truth teller whom everyone misunderstands. After his wife Sarah dies, K. loses his metaphorical capacity, becoming so wedded to the notion of clarity that he infuriates everyone, friends and strangers alike. When he intervenes in an armed robbery, K. finds himself both an inadvertent hero and the star of a new reality television program. Together with Claire, a grocery store clerk with a sharp tongue and a yen for celebrity, he travels the country, ruffling feathers and gaining fame at the intersection of American politics and entertainment. But soon he discovers that the world will fight viciously to preserve its delusions about itself.
Promo
K. is possessed of a hyper-articulate exasperation with the world, a doomed truth teller whom everyone misunderstands. After his wife Sarah dies, K. loses his metaphorical capacity, becoming so wedded to the notion of clarity that he infuriates everyone, friends and strangers alike. When he intervenes in an armed robbery, K. finds himself both an inadvertent hero and the star of a new reality television program. Together with Claire, a grocery store clerk with a sharp tongue and a yen for celebrity, he travels the country, ruffling feathers and gaining fame at the intersection of American politics and entertainment. But soon he discovers that the world will fight viciously to preserve its delusions about itself.
About the Book
Ron Currie’s three previous works of fiction have dazzled readers and critics alike with their originality, audacity and psychological insight. A writer of unique vision and huge imagination, Currie excels at creating complex, troubled yet endearing characters, and his work has won comparison to everyone from Kurt Vonnegut to George Saunders.
K., the narrator of Currie’s new novel, joins the ranks of other great American literary creations who show us something new about ourselves. Like Jack Gladney from WHITE NOISE, K. is possessed of a hyper-articulate exasperation with the world, and like Ignatius J. Reilly in A CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES, he is a doomed truth teller whom everyone misunderstands. After his wife Sarah dies, K.becomes so wedded to the notion of clarity that he infuriates friends and strangers alike. When he intervenes in an armed robbery, K. finds himself both an inadvertent hero and the star of a new reality television program. Together with Claire, a grocery store clerk with a sharp tongue and a yen for celebrity, he travels the country, ruffling feathers and gaining fame at the intersection of American politics and entertainment. But soon he discovers that the world will fight viciously to preserve its delusions about itself.
How Currie’s unconventional hero comes to find peace, to reenter the world, and to be touched again by emotion and empathy makes for a dramatic, utterly memorable story.
Audiobook available, read by Kevin Pariseau
