Further Adventures by Jon Stephen Fink

14th December, 2009 No Comments

Ray Green is a modern day Don Quixote tilting at windmills in the American desert.  An old man deluded by the righteous stories of his youth.

Further Adventures is an engaging and thought provoking story ruined by an attempt at unique prose.  There is not a comma to be found in the book, each paragraph becomes a muddle of emphasis without pause and the breathless fast pace of the uneducated narrator.  What is being attempted is understandable, however, the execution results in too much thinking about grammar and not enough about the message.

Which is a shame.  The concept of righteous action and vigilanteism resulting in unfortunate consequences is thought provoking.  Unlike Don Quioxte, Ray Green is not delusional or addled by dementia.  He is the unfortunate victim of unintelligence  influenced by the idealized storytelling of his youth and misguided interpretations of the actions and words of people he comes into contact with, each compounding on the other.  The resultant outcomes of his attempts to right wrongs further him into difficult and dangerous situations that he blindly pursues. 

The concept of the story is intriguing, a word that sounds a bit to much like describing a girl as having “a great personality.”  So let that stand as a caveat emptor.  Further Adventures has a lot to say if you’re willing to slowly translate.

As a result of the awkward roll of sentences, I finished the book without emotion.  There wasn’t anger or joy at the end because I wasn’t sure what to feel.  The book simply ended as I had to invest more in figuring out what was being said than in engaging with the story. When creative license goes too far, the technique obfuscates the message. 

The parallels of Ray’s youth and old age are lost, as are his philosophies and the analysis of action versus inaction in the face of evils and wrong-doing.  Ray’s eternal optimism that things will work out in the end–that he can save and protect people–is overshadowed by the awkward prose. 

Experimentation in writing should be encouraged–it forces readers to think about things in different ways and allows writers to explore new concepts.  Pushing boundaries and comfort levels should be a standard part of books lest we settle into copycat literature and cliches as so much writing often is.  However, if the creativity overshadows the story, the intelligence of what was done is for naught.  The prose of Further Adventures seems to be a sticking point in many of the reviews I’ve followed up on and read since completing the book.  Everyone seems to agree that the story is strong if you can get past Fink’s writing style. 

And that’s a big problem.  A reader shouldn’t have to “get past” the writing.  The writing should inspire the reader to continue.  If there is anything to “get past” it should be values and belief systems that we’ve grown up with that are challenged, not our reading comprehension.  Sadly, the reader is bound to miss the fact that that challenge is a part of the message of the book–Ray has a firm belief system in place and he overlooks any challenge to it as the issue and problems of outside influences that he must stand strong against. 

This book was received directly from Harper Perennial for review.

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