Book Review: Zanesville by Kris Saknussemm

As I was reading Kris Saknussemm's debut novel Zanesville I kept wondering, "In what part of the universe does this guy's mind reside?" I know it's an entirely different plane then mine - but that's a good thing.

If forced to pigeonhole Zanesville, you would call it science fiction. But that is an understatement. How does Saknussemm describe the book? As "techno-theological post-American monster vaudeville." Now maybe you have a glimpse of why I was wondering what universe his mind inhabits.

Zanesville, which Saknussemm plans to be the first in a proposed series he calls The Lodemania Testament, starts in 1838 with the birth of Lloyd Meadhorn Sitturd, "one of the most neglected geniuses in history." As a young boy, Sitturd is whisked up into a tornado on July 4, in Dustdevil, Texas, only to be returned to the exact spot unharmed some 20 minutes later. On July 14, 1913, after a life as an inventor, businessman, recluse and cult leader, Sitturd again disappears in a tornado in Dustdevil, this time never to be heard from again.

Suddenly, we are in a post-apocalyptic America, where a man we will come to know as Elijah Clearfather awakens in New York's Central Park, not knowing who he is but believing he was deposited there by a whirlwind. This is a far different America. It is run and controlled by the Vitessa Cultporation. The California coast has disappeared in an earthquake called Bigfoot and the new center of "culture" in the western U.S. is LosVegas, Nevadafornia. McDonald's has been converted to McTavish's, which has replaced the hamburger with haggis ("sheep stomach with your choice of filling").

Modern technology consists of things such as cyberneering, genetainment and neurotecture. America has survived (?) a Holy War waged by Al-Waqi'a. Much of the country is roamed by bandits, some of the Mad Max variety, including some who fly Mickey Mouse flags to designate that they are cannibals.

Clearfather is taken in by a group of anti-Vitessa rebels whose camp in Central Park is hidden by a "Mirror Field." Sensing and fearing his latent abilities, they fill him with psychoactive drugs and inject mind probes. When the results they obtain leave them uncertain whether Clearfather is a messiah, a Vitessa intelligence agent, a "weapon of mass instruction" or simply an amnesiac, the rebels set Clearfather loose to see what happens. He is given a Greyhound bus pass and a map indicating places from his past they derived from the psych probes.

Article Author: Tim Gebhart

Tim Gebhart lives in Sioux Falls, SD, where he practices law in order to provide shelter for his family, his dogs, and his books. He is a member of the National Book Critics Circle and his blog de guerre is A Progressive on the Prairie.

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