What does Zen enlightenment look like when you live in LA? The Haskell in John Haskell's new novel thinks it might look like Steve Martin. Or at least "being Steve" is a step on the road to enlightenment.
Either way, I thoroughly enjoyed this meditation on being and self.
I loved his collection "I am Not Jackson Pollock" and after this, I will need to go back and give his novel "American Purgatorio" another shot.
— From RobertLos Angeles. A would-be movie reviewer, looking for romance, takes an assignment to write a magazine article about celebrity look-alikes. After getting to know a Steve Martin impersonator, the writer decides to undertake his own process of transformation and becomes not Steve Martin but a version of him—graceful, charming, at home in the world. Safe in the guise of "Steve," he begins to fall in love. And that's when "Steve" takes over. Set in the capital of illusion, this is a story of one man's journey into paradise—and his attempt to come out the other side.
“The best new novel I've read in several years.” —Benjamin Kunkel, author of Indecision
“Gutsy, weirdly engrossing . . . This strange, moving book has done just what a first novel should.” —Taylor Antrim, The New York Times Book Review
“My novel of the year.” —Geoff Dyer, The Independent (London)
