PRO CONNECT
Catamount Mayhugh holds a B.A. in Chemistry/Physics, an M.S. in Physics and is a Juris Doctor. He has worked in the world of rare books and has operated as an independent curator in the Hamptons. Catamount is also a visual artist (he has exhibited in both private galleries and museums), a poet, a farmer, an educator, and an attorney, and draws upon his broad range of experiences and academic disciplines to integrate a multitude of diverse ideas into each writing project.
“Explores many wide-ranging ideas at its own unapologetic pace.”
– Kirkus Reviews
A novel about addicts recovering from a peculiar drug from debut author Mayhugh.
Blaise Joule, B-J to most, is a college dropout–turned–stained glass artist with an appreciation for myths and history, a penchant for the Russian film director Andrei Tarkovsky, and a problem using correct verb tenses. Finding himself in the Red Lion House due to an addiction to the drug “Vu,” B-J is surrounded by fellow patients with equally diverse interests: Tom, a photographer steeped in Buddhism who greets people with a gentle “Namaste,” and the enthusiastic William Kelmscott, a publisher with an extensive knowledge of anthropology and quotations, both biblical and otherwise. The reader follows along as these and other patients argue, discuss philosophy, write poetry and learn to trust and, in some cases, love one another. B-J falls for the slender Cecilia, but the joining of two recovering addicts is a fragile affair. Stuffed with dialogue and references ranging from Nathanial Hawthorne to Monty Python to Calvin Coolidge and Tarkovsky, the book isn’t meant for the impatient. Discussions tend to be lengthy, and details of life in the Red Lion House (“I’m not sure Greg and Louis’ spaghetti dinner captured the essence of a special event”) can seem extraneous. Favoring a meditative quality, the book is geared more as a Dinner with Andre meets The Magic Mountain. A trust-fall exercise may not impress the reader as much as it does B-J; however, the resulting musings allow for any number of tangential thoughts and altered relationships. The prose can be a little overwrought (“Her voice took on the slightly malicious timbre of her most coquettish tones”), but the story whips through so many different concepts, the interested reader is bound to learn something in the process.
Explores many wide-ranging ideas at its own unapologetic pace.
Pub Date: July 25, 2014
Page count: 408pp
Publisher: Amazon Digital Services
Review Posted Online: Feb. 11, 2015
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