Ben Spivey’s Flowing in the Gossamer Fold

Preorders for Flowing in the Gossamer Fold will ship around July 21st. In honor of the occasion, I am bumping the review of Ben Spivey’s wonderful book.

---

Flowing in the Gossamer Fold, simply, is about understanding an altered position when all known context falls away. Literally, a story of a professional motivational speaker attempting to harness his life after a divorce, Ben Spivey’s debut novel quickly and beautifully submerges the literal for an appropriately poetic read.

After about 20 pages of concrete scene-setting, we begin to experience a more language-focused breakdown of the protagonist’s deterioration, a style that continues throughout to the end of the book. Normally, such contrast, from suited professional speaker to emotional vagabond in such a short number of pages might feel forced. This makes Spivey’s ability to seamlessly drift from concrete to illusive imagery, while never completely leaving the reader to wander the text, all the more impressive. (Much of this smooth transition might be credited to subtly planted character traits. For example, we get the feeling that the protagonist’s married life wasn’t entirely traditional; as a parting reminder, the wife shaves, bags, and presents her dyed pubic hair).

Much of the novel is spent with the protagonist after his divorce, where he has isolated himself in a will-bestowed cabin, having only coffee and eggs to sustain him. The metaphorical implications of such a setup, Spivey capitalizes upon succinctly: “I’m fixing holes. I’m making it better. I can leave whenever I want” (pg 121). At times, the author extends his before-and-after comparisons:

“Morning dew rested on the tops of the parked cars lining the streets. The homes I passed, old and rustic next to modern imitations, the duality of the new next to the old, or better yet the original next to the imitator, I thought about those things: being and not being, consciousness, and unconsciousness, life and death” (pg 61).

Flowing in the Gossamer Fold might best be categorized as “Emo Lit,” having all of the melodrama of Emo music, without ever dulling the audience’s senses to the consistent and powerful impact of the text. Take the following passage as testament, one that wears its emotion on its sleeve, so to speak, yet never feels false:

“I thought about wanting to sleep in a place so dark, about having a drink with my father. Wanting to sink farther into the mine. I turned off the light, and the light sucked from my eyes like blowing wind, like butterflies around the street lamp” (pg 140).

Visit:
Ben Spivey (the author)
Blue Square Press (the publisher)

Preorder (releases in August 2010):
From Blue Square Press (the publisher) Per the publisher site, ALL PREORDERS WILL BE SIGNED!