Victor LaValle's Big Machine

You don't have to be a particularly attentive reader of Isak to know that I'm a fan of Victor LaValle. Ever since I heard about the pending publication of Big Machine last January (LaValle described it as a "monster book," and discussed it alongside a class he taught on The Island of Dr. Moreau), I've been looking forward to getting my hands on a copy. I'm thriled to say that it came in the mail recently--and as soon as I chip away at my preposterous "Now Reading" list, I'm diving in.

The Wall Street Journal, of all places, has beaten me to it. Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg notes that LaValle's drawing comparisons to Ralph Ellison and Thomas Pynchon.

“Big Machine,” a new novel by Victor LaValle, portrays a world framed by conspiracy, intrigue and double-dealing. It opens with Ricky Rice, a former heroin addict, being summoned to the deep woods of Vermont by the Washburn Library, a secret society that searches the nation’s newspapers for signs of God’s pronouncements...

... “My three obsessions are mental illness, horror and religion,” says Mr. LaValle, who won a 2004 Whiting Award for emerging writers and a 2006 fellowship from the United States Artists organization.

Trachtenberg writes that despite the wide advance acclaim, LaValle's third work of fiction faces two primary hurdles: Some believe that it's "difficult to market black literary fiction" and  Big Machine is such an unusual hybrid of literary styles that it doesn't fit neatly into the genre catagories of most bookstores.

I, for one, am hardly discouraged by that.

Official publication date: August 11. If you're in the Brooklyn area, consider stopping by the book party tomorrow evening.

Image Credit: The Wall Street Journal

Comments

[Dan Wickett]

I've yet to write about it yet but highly recommend you dive in as early as possible. I'm in the process of reading LaValle from latest to earliest and about done - the others are great, this is amazing.

[Anna]

Gah! Devil! You tempt me to make it SIX books that I'm all reading at the same time!

Help, I'm drowning in excellent literature!