One of These Things is not Like the Other
a novel: D. Travers Scott
ReviewsLAMBDA LITERARY
AWARD WINNER: BEST THRILLER
OF 2005 BEST NOVEL NOMINEE 2006
This gorgeous existential mystery is a
page turner, a grand novel of possession from beyond the grave in which
the nuclear family becomes an opera of identity puzzles. Surprises
contend on every page. Father may know, but daddy knows best. In 1997 D. Travers Scott made a splash
with his exquisitely disquieting novel Execution,
Texas: 1987. Now
he returns with a corrosive new novel, One of
These Things Is Not Like the Other. In it, a set of quadruplet
brothers is raised by their older (but also identical) father. They
all share the same first and last name. Then the story gets really
strange. Tender is the fright -- If you put together the
moody, specter-ridden dreamscape of Lynch and the lyrical wit of
Fitzgerald, you might get something like Scott's new novel.
... A dark tale of suicide, homicide, fratricide and incest in which
sons try to deal with their father's death.... The edge and underbelly of
gay literature. If that ain't American
creep-out catnip, what is? D. Travers Scott's new novel is a tall tale
like no other, insinuating itself into your psyche much
the way the central figure pervades the dreams and actions of his
troubled sons. A brand
new myth that crawls inside modern notions of brotherhood
and fatherhood as well as the ways masculinity is traditionally conceived
against the supposed American ideal of individualism; the book effectively
flays alive all received wisdom on these various
apprehensions, and it does so from the inside out, in ever-increasingly
ugly eruptions from beneath the skin, revealing the shocking bones
beneath the torn muscle and sinew of what we call a family.
Scott more than delivers on the promise of Execution,
Texas: 1987. Populated
by surreally incestuous brothers and sexy parapsychological
polymorphs,
D. Travers Scott's latest novel ... is a jagged and multifaceted backwater
noir,
filled with revelation and full of life. A bizarre thriller/dark comedy/love story...
maybe it is kind of like Sesame Street—written by Clive
Barker, directed by David Lynch and starring Crispen
Glover as Elmo. An amazingly adept
wordsmith ...who can starkly paint every
detail against the inside of your eyelids so that the images linger long after
you put down his book. His new novel is no exception to the dark,
gritty, psychological insight into human development that he demonstrated
in Execution:
Texas, 1987. ...This is a compelling read and experiencing
it more than once helps to extricate the deeper existential meanings,
which dance primitively at the edge of his gripping style. It was hard
to put this book down and I doubt you will forget
the experience. I am certain you will never think
of family in quite the same way. When their domineering, demanding, and reclusive dad dies, four identical brothers set out to discover who they really are. One of them is gay - or is it two? And if their mother died giving birth to triplets, who is the fourth son? And when they start dying, who among them is the killer? This is a uniquely spooky horror-tinged thriller from the author of Execution, Texas: 1987 and the editor of Strategic Sex. Part horror, part magical realism, this
novel is also a road story and an exploration of identity and sexuality.
... tight, internally alliterative prose which is a
delight to read,
and the careering journeys of the four Jake Barnes travelling to find
themselves and find out the non-brother provide a
snapshot of the seamier aspects of America. Reviews for Execution, Texas: 1987and other work:
D. Travers Scott's novel is,
in turn, both funny and disturbing ... captures the mystery and
confusion of an American youth where the search for love is equaled
only by the search for drugs. I applaud him.
Dazzling -- Publisher's Weekly Wonderfully evocative, and the characters
are the book's great strength ... probably the most interesting
gay debut novel since Dale Peck's.
Killer humor ... Scott neatly but affectionately skewers the 1960s generation
that raised those freaked-out kids ... knife-edge balance between satire
and soap opera, its humor and angst remain winning.
Beautiful ... [an] elegance of writing that keeps sensory matter the
fore, halfway between Flaubert and Straight
to Hell ... D. Travers Scott
brilliantly delineates the most complicated of ages, when adulthood is a
possible escape hatch, slightly out of reach, and the world is too big and
too small.
Excavates the spiritual life of kids
from out of the crumbly, barren soil of the suburban Midwest....
The book's pressured, hothouse energy is generated largely by Seeger's
fumbling search here on earth for the perfectly observed world of
Marc Almond's songs, and his inevitable failure
to find it...an intriguing meditation on art and life. -- Matthew
Stadler
Elegantly constructed and very smart, Execution, Texas: 1987 holds more
crackly energy than a box of firecrackers. And Seeger, its nervy, sex-obsessed
protagonist, is unforgettable.
What's Travers Scott got? Energy, drive, a burning wit, and a supple,
almost scary 'execution.' His story of relentless teens trapped in a
small Texas suburb, dreaming of New York and the Warhol/Edie
Sedgwick lifestyle, is like All
the Pretty Horses meets 'All the Young
Dudes,' shaken together in a box and spilled out over vast patches of Texas and
Mexico. Underneath the familiar trappings of the bildungsroman, a great
shuddery sadness and joy; underneath the Ecstasy, a coolly European interest
in ideas of family, history, community, and desire."
Rowdy, openhearted Seeger King couldn't be too much more out of place
in Execution, Texas, where is sexual verve and existential uncertainty
make for one menacing hilarious situation after another. With wit and
precision, D. Travers Scott makes each sentence ring with young Seeger's
pain and his pleasure in this ambitious and frankly erotic first novel.
One of the best reads of the year. An amazing debut for the writer…. You
must read it! |
