This Book Is Not for You

September 25, 2017
The snarky, experimental first novel by Hoyt (author of the story collection Then We Saw the Flames) consists of one “Chapter One” after another narrated by an abrasive young man who calls himself Neptune. After leaving the University of Kansas, he falls in with a group of anarchists and, on a whim, takes off with their supply of dynamite to thwart their plan to blow up a building. On the run, he arrives at the apartment of his favorite professor, only to find that her head has been bashed in, and she now appears to him as a silent ghost, accompanying him wherever he goes. The narrator, quite conscious that he is a voice in a book, frequently addresses the reader directly and belligerently. “You hate me already, I can tell,” reads one chapter in its entirety; “You still there?” reads another. While the series of first chapters might suggest a time loop, in fact the novel moves along linearly, with a few flashbacks. Frequent references to The Catcher in the Rye and Huck Finn suggest that Hoyt is aiming for a contemporary version of those tales, with an extra helping of profanity and violence. Though Neptune’s story might not be for all readers, some may be carried away by the momentum of his sharp voice.