My first published work is up on Rick Moody’s site, RateYourLodging.com, the fictional hotel reviewing site supporting the release of his new literary novel, Hotels of North America (Little, Brown, November 10, 2015).
In my piece, a character from my forthcoming book, Maximal, comes face to face with a character from his own work. Seems he was once a finance exec who went down a literary path; funny how that should be. The encounter promotes his review of the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin resort, a Starwood property recently in the news because of the pending acquisition of Starwood by Marriott, and it is this review/story that Moody published this week.
While perhaps poking some gratuitous fun at a place I actually enjoy, the review, I think, touches on some of the salient issues of institutional life today, meaning it touches on the core elements of my work: isolation, the loss of self, the depersonalizing effect of structures like corporations, governments, and religious institutions, and the somewhat desperate loves we have when we are wrapped up in all that.
I find it wonderful that my first published work has come out this way, intertwined just a bit with Rick’s very good and very important book, his sixth. Moody’s commitment to Realism in an overwhelming sea of Naturalist, Program Era fiction, his mastery of complex, beautiful sentences, his aspiration to the spiritual impact of Becket as well as other great writers of our civilization, lends a quixotic air to his work, one I cherish, because it feels to me that he is searching for the truth in literature on the same path where I wish to find it. My little piece associated with Hotels, although a milestone for my writing career, is inconsequent to the big fish he is after. Buy his book, and read my little addition.