graham Guest

Winter Park, the debut novel by Graham Guest, is an unusual read. In fact, I have never read anything like it. I think that is what intrigued me most about the novel. I found the plot a little lacking; yet, what Mr. Guest does do well is interject a mix of thought provoking ideas with an absurd sense of irony that really worked. Due to the lack of grammar, the prose can be difficult at times to follow and the characters are nothing short of bizarre.

The story starts with a young Philosophy PhD student, Eric Swanson, on spring break headed to Winter Park, CO to a reunion of sorts with friends he left behind. What ensues is a drug/drunken calamity that ends in murder. Part I abruptly ends when Eric wakes up from his stupor and recalls what happened.

In Part II, the reader is then whisked away to a rehabilitation camp in Texas called The Dude Ranch. The camp is run by a strange group of people. Eric has now metamorphosed into a paraplegic as a result of the trauma in Part I. He is then given an alias, as everyone is, of Wayne Ford and is paired with Harris Birdsong. Harris is a savant of sorts in that he has memorized the whole dictionary but appears to function on a social level of a young child. The story from this point is mainly a continuous stream of Harris’s thoughts. Without a doubt, the intent here is to recall the idiom “out of the mouth of babes”.

A little house keeping here. First, because of the plot short comings, I would really rate this book as 3.7 instead a pure 4 stars. Second, I received a free copy on exchange for my honest review.… (altro)