McKenzie Rising
An American Frolic
by Miles Wilson
This title was previously available on NetGalley and is now archived.
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Pub Date Oct 18 2022 | Archive Date Nov 30 2022
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Description
Their work is countered by a Dickensian ensemble of characters, many of whom are chronically sidetracked from the heroic community purpose by various amatory diversions. Given that the protesters include such locals as D.B. Cooper (the long-vanished airplane hijacker) and Sasquatch, in all his odoriferous glory, the reader is in for a rollicking but powerfully thought-provoking journey.
A lusty, environmental picaresque, McKenzie Rising satirizes our shortfalls, while celebrating our resilience and the triumph of community. The book offers a corrective to some of the amendable follies we lug with us as we careen into the (post)-Trump, (post)-COVID era.
Advance Praise
“Miles Wilson’s latest novel, McKenzie Rising, is difficult to describe. Think ‘Fear and Loathing in Oregon’ mixed with Alice in Wonderland. There’s more crazy fun in this book than there used to be on “Saturday Night Live.” Be sure to keep your seatbelt buckled while enjoying Wilson’s kaleidoscopic potpourri. And obey the author’s instructions if he asks you to ‘Put on your oxygen mask.’”
—John Nichols, author of The Milagro Beanfield War
“With daring wit and clever wordplay, Miles Wilson pulls off a rare achievement: a fast-paced satire that pokes fun at contemporary America. . . . [E]verything and everyone is fair game—big business, academe, and Sasquatch. Packed with rogues and adventurers, McKenzie Rising brilliantly portrays the folly of greed, misdirected ambition, and ultimately the healing power of love.”—Ann Weisgarber, author of The Glovemaker
“There are clear connections between McKenzie Rising and Ed Abbey’s Desert Solitaire, Ken Kesey’s Sometimes a Great Notion, Hunter S. Thompson’s fierce and sometimes addled prose, and the post-modern world of Thomas Pynchon. Wilson provides timely commentary on American institutions in dire need of skewering.”
—Mark Maynard, author of Grind
Marketing Plan
• Satiric takedown at the improbable convergence of capitalism, academe, and the environment
• Comic novel that explores small-town life in the northwestern U.S.
• Memorable, eccentric characters / action-packed
• Exploration of greedy corporate America’s impact on rural communities
• A Confederacy of Dunces for the American West
Available Editions
| EDITION | Other Format |
| ISBN | 9781647790639 |
| PRICE | $21.00 (USD) |
| PAGES | 244 |
Featured Reviews
Mike D, Reviewer
I’m the first to rate and review this one. Whew, Ok, then…
I’m pretty sure I requested this book based on the cover. Put a Sasquatch on the cover and I’m there.
Of course, I wasn’t opposed to the concept of an American frolic either. I love a good satire. But Sasquatch or not (and frankly, he has but a small role in this), this one really didn’t work for me.
Frolic, picaresque, satire – this book juggles a lot. The basic plot involves a small Pacific Northwest place with a nothing-going-for-it college and an environmental situation standing in a way of a huge commercial housing development.
There’s tons of potential here, some of which is taken advantage of and some is…well, it’s overdone. The narrative veers from genuinely funny to punny (the author is a whiz when it comes to slogan puns) but all too often devolves into anatomically-based juvenilia.
The characters are fun and whimsical but there were ways too many of them and they too tend to be over-the-top.
The book seems like the author had too story to tell in too small on a page count so he crammed and crammed and crammed.
And then, there is the fact that the University of Nevada Press that furnished this ARC through Netgalley really, really didn’t want you to enjoy it. So much so that they put numbers throughout the text – there occur frequently and sporadically, sometimes even in the middle of the words. There are also so formatting and font snafus, but the numbers are the real bane.
It’s bewildering why so many publishers provide perfectly readable ARCs and then every so often someone goes and does this. I almost ditched the book, but the beginning was sort of funny and I figured I’ll stick with it. Turned out not worth it. Not the book itself and certainly not the reading experience. User mileage may vary, I suppose. Thanks Netgalley.
Michelle A, Media/Journalist
I really wanted to like this book, I live in Portland, know a lot of the areas mentioned in the book, and it just sounded super fun. But...it's just too much. There's so much going on, and it tries to so hard to be clever and quirky and weird, I finally ended up setting it aside, and it's going to be a DNF. :(
I think if the author had reigned it in a bit and developed a story with a few less quirks for the sake of being quirky, it might have worked for me. That all said, love the cover! Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.
