Synopses & Reviews
WHO IS ELIJAH CLEARFATHER?
Futuristic bioweapon or good old-fashioned messiah? Reincarnated ex-porn star or mutant information-age revolutionary? The man who awakens in New York Citys Central Park with no memory of his identity and the enigmatic message FATHER FORGIVE THEM F carved into the flesh of his back may be all of these things and more.
Taken in (and then expelled) by a group of freedom fighters battling the soul-deadening Vitessa Cultporation, Clearfather is a stranger in an even stranger land. Following tantalizing clues that point to the gnomic Stinky Wiggler, and pursued by murderous Vitessa agents, Clearfather embarks on a surreal odyssey of self-discovery across an America that resembles a vast amusement park designed by some unholy trinity of Walt Disney, Hunter S. Thompson, and Hieronymus Bosch.
Accompanying Clearfather is an unforgettable cast of characters-including Aretha Nightingale, an ex-football-playing drag queen; Dooley Duck and Ubba Dubba, hologram cartoon characters sprung outrageously to life; and the ethereally beautiful Kokomo, whose past is as much a mystery as Clearfathers own.
By turns hilarious and deeply moving, a savage, fiercely intelligent satire that is also a page-turning adventure and a transcendent love story, Zanesville marks the arrival of a brilliant new voice in fiction.
"Saknussemm's debut novel describes the picaresque wanderings of a Zelig-like character through a post-apocalyptic America where psychotropic drug dependency and bodily mutilation/alteration are the order of the day. The protagonist, Clearfather, awakens as a middle-aged man in a future Central Park, with vague childhood memories and an outsize member. He makes his way through an America in which the divide between public and private is so nonexistent that the U.S. government itself is privatized, outsourced to the monolithic drug manufacturer, Vitessa Cultporation. Searching for his identity and an explanation of the current state of the barely unified union, Clearfather encounters deposed sex-obsessed drug-addicted corporate scions, lesbian motorcycle gangs, gay heavyweights and possibly the creator of the universe, at least in its current state. Saknussemm creates a self-contained, sci-fi world where celebrity worship is pervasive and holographic mascots, 'eidolons,' stand in as shills for everything from fast-food haggis to 'Childrite nurturing centers.' Tedious action sequences between warring factions and an autistic attention to authorial eschatology make this a long trudge. But it is just a slight step into the imaginative ether to see how many of the novel's obsessions are endgame imaginings of current societal problems." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)
A first novel by an award winner in poetry and short fiction, "Zanesville" reads like "Gulliver's Travels" as seen through the eyes of Terry Gilliam.
About the Author
Kris Saknussemm was born and educated in America and had a predictable range of odd jobs in his youth: factory worker, forklift driver, hospital orderly, counselor at a camp for the blind and the circulation manager for an adult newspaper. For most of his mature life he has lived abroad, primarily in Australia.
Following an aborted doctorate program in the History and Philosophy of Science, he turned to the study of anthropology, studying the Cargo Cult religions of Melanesia. As the result of an hallucinogenic experience on the island of Tanna in Vanuatu, he came to the conclusion that he did not sufficiently understand the role religion played in his own culture to be credibly investigating and analyzing the beliefs of another, and so abandoned academia.
He turned to advertising and mass communications for a living, while continuing to write fiction and poetry. Founder of the guerilla theater group called the False Frontier Society, he staged a series of “resurrection performances” in derelict industrial sites in Melbourne and Sydney, until a near fall from scaffolding almost claimed his life.
He now divides his time between a rural property in the old goldfields region outside Melbourne and the West Coast of America. A painter and sculptor as well as writer, he has been a resident at the MacDowell Colony and is a member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.
Zanesville is his first novel and the first in a proposed series of works he calls The Lodemania Testament.
Reading Group Guide
1. In Chapter 1 we learn that the protagonist, Clearfather, has the beginning of a quotation carved into his back. What is the significance of this quotation? Is it important this this scarring takes the form of language and do your thoughts about the wound change by the end of the story?
2. We meet several different types of families throughout the course of the book, both literal blood-related families and chosen or accidental families-tribes of circumstance. What are some of the conclusions about the definition of a family offered by the novel? How does the story make you feel about the role and the responsibilities of the individual within a family unit? In your view, which characters behave the most honorably in this regard?
3. Two major questions that contemporary speculative fiction frequently focuses on are What does it mean to be human? and What is real? What kind of answers or suggestions does this story put forward? Is there a link between humanity and reality in the book, and if so, what is it?
4. Each of the major female characters can be said to have a special gift. What are they and how do they influence Clearfather?
5. Dr. Tadd puts forward the argument that trivia is important-that knowing what type of animal a certain cartoon character is may be more significant than it appears. Why does he say this? What role does the exchange of such information play in peoples lives?
6. Dooley Duck tells us there is hope for us all because of what happened to him. Why does he see himself as an inspirational figure?
7. Stinky Wiggler makes the point that Clearfather and Blind Lemon have one major thing in common, which he values above all else. How does Wiggler phrase this characteristic and what do you think he means?
8. Wiggler calls his enemy APPARATUS. How would you describe this adversary? What other names might apply?
9. The novel advances the concept that Ideas are alive, that they are creatures with an independent existence from humans. If you had to defend this proposition, which ideas would you point to?
10. The story tells of both a physical and a psychological/spiritual journey. By the end of the book, what do you think the most important lesson Clearfather has learned? Are the discoveries worth the price? Does he ultimately act wisely or selfishly? Can selfishness ever be wise?
11. Issues for Further Discussion
A. The author Kris Saknussemm has said that he has had two abiding life interests:
The private obsessive theme park-shrines of what are termed “Outsider Artists,” some examples of which are The Ideal Palace of Ferdinand Cheval, Simon Rodias Watts Towers, Reverend Howard Finsters Paradise Garden and Leonard Knights Salvation Mountain, among many others.
The relationship between Magic, Religion and Science.
How do these two personal fascinations express themselves in Zanesville?
What sort of personal shrines on whatever scale do you know of in your own life? Do you have one, however small-or even secret?
Do you think that we live in an age of Magic, Religion or Science?
B. When asked in an interview what was the seed crystal for writing the book, Saknussemm indicated that it was the following quotation from Ralph Waldo Emerson:
“To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your own private heart is true for all men-that is genius.”
Why is this observation both empowering and uplifting and also dangerous and disturbing? It was made a century and a half ago-does it have more or less relevance today?