Pre-Order WINTERSWIM here
(also reviewed)
Order CODE FOR FAILURE here
On heroin God had spoken to Sheldon, but on meth God showed him the future.
I'm (not so) secretly afraid of losing my identity with age. Of being crushed by the daily grind, stop doing anything of value outside of work and start taking interest in things just because everybody else does, and die meaningless. That's why I take great interest unflappable things, that never stop being awesome because it's their nature to be clever, subtle and singular. Author Ryan W. Bradley's unique writing style, for example is a source of endless fascination to me. His latest novel WINTERSWIM is another display of the power of his quiet and peculiar brand of minimalism. It's different, disorienting and leaves the reader with a strong sense of foreboding. Ryan W. Bradley is inimitable, an endangered species if you will.
Steven is a quiet, yet slightly disturbed young man living in a small Alaskan town. He is the son of Pastor Long, an iconic and troublesome local figure around who there seem to be many rumours. When local girls are starting to turn up dead in a nearby lake, the concept of loss hits Steven right in the face for the first time in his life. In the midst of the strange deaths, his first love and one time babystitter turned minor Hollywood actress comes back to town and fate leads both Steven and her to investigate the drownings. But when you pursue events that affect so many lives, it's going to affect yours at some point. Steven's about to brutally grow up.
One of my favourite scenes in WINTERSWIM is right at the beginning, and I believe sets the tone for what the novel is like. Steven break into the local morge (where there's only one body) in order to see Paris, a beautiful girl he knew from school, one last time. Ryan W. Bradley's own brand of minimalism renders that scene with a stark beauty. The deviance of the act in itself is never discussed, because it's well illustrated by Steven's actions yet there is a misfit sensibility to his actions. A naive, earnest sense of discovery. WINTERSWIM is not a novel that cam claim moral high ground about anything, but it exposes the complexity and the harsh nature of human life in little words.
The beauty of Ryan W. Bradley's writing is that he's accessible. He's easy and fun to read, yet WINTERSWIM has vision and scope and discusses a wide array of themes such as: family, violence, drugs, origins, cosmology and religion. Bradley's ideas are complex and engaging, but his language is simple and fluid. That's what makes him such a unique writer, such a force of nature in the literary landscape. To me, it's some ultimate form of bushido writing sophistication. I've had a blast reading WINTERSWIM. It's a smooth, dark and cerebral novel (everything to please me, really) and it's deceptively emotional at times. It's not out yet, it hits the streets on December 8 but do yourself a favour and pre-order your copy right now.
BADASS
BADASS
