A reading by Chris Robinson of Rick Harsch's masterpiece? Most agree. Although he might have two and the rest aren't far behind.

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Now available from:

https://zerogrampress.com/2022/01/26/the-manifold-destiny-of-eddie-vegas/

Video review: ‪https://youtu.be/ngVSNv69LM8
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The great American novel, let us not be presumptuous; a great American novel.

Who best to write about his country than an American in exile. Exiles have a view both from the inside and from the outside; who better to come to a conclusion about what is wrong or right about their country of origin. One loses count of how many exiles come back to seize power in their country of their birth. Sayyid Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini known as the Ayatollah springs to mind an anathema to many Americans. Will Rick Harsch exiled in Slovenia writing The Manifest Destiny of Eddie Vegas be a railhead, a clarion call to fire up the semi-moribund state of literature in the U.S A.? The Manifold Destiny of Eddie Vegas (which deserves it's own acronym (TMDOEV)) could be the hot pick for every library in America if Rick Harsch could win his battle with the mighty Amazon(onians) but that's a story for another book.

Dictionary.com says that Manifold Destiny is a belief or doctrine, held chiefly in the middle and later part of the 19th century, that it was the destiny of the U.S. to expand its territory over the whole of North America and to extend and enhance its political, social and economic influences: in the 21st century one could substitute the World for North America. Nuclear bomb (testing and usage) in the 20th century and drone strikes in the 21st century are the outward signs of this process and feature in the central story of TMDOEV. Manifold Destiny can also refer to a pure mathematical problem known as Poincaré's conjecture (a century old conundrum about the characteristics of three-dimensional spheres) which was claimed to have been solved in 2003 by Chineses mathematicians and has now morphed into Chineses expansionism. Manifold Destiny is also the title of a book subtitled: The One The Only Guide to Cooking on your car Engine, (but we won't go into that) therefore Manifold Destiny can mean different things to different people and this brings me to the second big theme of Rick Harsch's book: language and the way we use it.

Through the Garvin family Harsch tells the story of America from its pioneering mountain men days fighting the indians to its surgical strikes on muslim leaders. Eddie Vegas is a Garvin who changed his name after breaking out of prison, he is searching for his son Donnie (no-one wants to be called Donald these days) who has travelled to Brussels with a super rich American named Drake. Along the way there are lively stories about Garvins ancestors, interspersed with Donnie and Drake marking time in Brussels. Drake is summoned back to America after the murder of his parents who were in the business of clandestine terrorism around the world. They are followed back by "Picasso Tits" who has become Drakes lover in Brussels and the mysterious 22b. The story reaches its conclusion in the desert outside Las Vegas and while the central story is a good one, involving family connections and loyalties, the real meat of the book is the getting there. The story of the original Tom Garvin and Hector Robitaille who survived a bear attack is a brilliant evocation of American wild lands before civilization: the struggle to survive, the reliance on or the menace of the indigenous Indian peoples and the bridge of a mixed language of words as a means of communication: Harsch makes up his own language to give an authenticity to this section of the book. One could say that much of the book is written in a language that is familiarly English but twisted, bent out of shape as the story demands. The book is full of good stories, wild characters and American landscapes, but it is also full of something else and that is Harsch's use of language.

Readers of Rick Harsch's work will not be surprised by his use of alliteration, striking metaphors and word changing: nouns become adjectives or adverbs, words are invented to assist in the flow of the writing. The cleverness of some of this language goes way beyond the tired old wisecracks that litter much of modern writing. Rick is a master of a style that will be familiar as stream of consciousness, but when Harsch uses it there is a feeling of really being inside the head of his characters. There are passages when the author interjects into his own story and then the reader feels he inside the head of Rick Harsch, not always a comfortable place; but then this is not a comfortable book. The character can find themselves arguing about language; the meaning of words: this is a short section where Drake and Donnie and 'Picasso Tits' are talking about stochastic inertia:

"You don't understand the meaning at all do you?"
" No less than before you asked. But as far as that goes we really have to admit we've been pretty gullible when it comes to presuming to understand meanings at all. We manage by refusing gravidity of meaning to mystifying objects"
"I have no idea what the fuck you are talking about"

A word of advice to readers of this book: don't refuse gravidity of meaning, You could be missing much.

A book that reaches to portray the soul of America, through a history of stories and in a language that brings those stories alive must be considered as an important event in these days of some facile modern writing. Rick Harsch is not afraid to take risks, his lengthy tome of over 700 pages has most things including some pages of lists of random (maybe) phrases. The fact that it is all bound up in a story that bubbles along seemingly of its own accord makes the journey worthwhile. I found my experience of being in Rick Harsch's world both exciting and entertaining and for readers who might want to try something a little different then I would recommend getting a copy sooner rather than later (my copy comes from a limited edition of 100 copies) A five star read.

PS I had to get my copy direct from the author himself as it is not available though Amazon or it's subsidiaries. ( )

If this book had been published in 1960, we would all know about it by now. "Manifold Destiny" would be a catch-phrase justification for our monstropolis steamroller of a country.

Combining an astonishing range of styles, a magisterial voice, operatic reverence, elegant tone variance, and predominantly satirical, cynical, jaded, darkly comic, acerbic, and comedic characters, this tome draws fair comparisons with David Foster child Wallace.

Composed of shifting viewpoints interwoven with parallel narratives - a rough outline of the riverine vortices you will encounter might look like this:

Hector Robitaille versus Old Ephraim. Approximately 1840 on the American frontier.
Donnie & Drake in Brussels and stateside, their gambols and gambles. 8 generations removed from Hector's timeline.
Garvin/ Gravel/ Eddie - 1 generation behind the teen pseudo-protags.
Setif's imperative feminine perspective in a male-dominated society.
Nordgaard's Vietnam tale within a tale, contemporaneous, but drilling through multiple narratives.
Author’s asides - breaking the 4th wall.

Harsch's multi-layered language and surgical word choices will constantly outwit you. The prose is peppered with puns and alive with alliteration. This is a no-holds-bard, creme de la crop, onomatopoeic, virtuosic performance. There is no parody or imitation, no reliance on cliche or cheap gimmicks, except perhaps for a single exception in the loving homages to Rabelais in the form of whimsical lists. Not a tired phrase in sight, no strained eloquence, but only practical, improvisational riffing, which in its accumulated convolutions and fluttering depths assumes layers of lyrical immanence.

You get intertextual arrangements, traditional Western songs, and bawdy ramblings, symphonic narration, dreamlike languor, and precise observations, along with sentences as courageous as landslides, and the convincing plot is always marching into vast horizons of meaning, leaving you parched on the precipice of awe.

Not to mention the meta-fictional moments, some of the most creative and elaborate strings of curses I’ve ever encountered, a breadth of erudition to place this book in the first class of American literature, and a lyrical fluency on par with Lowry's Under the Volcano. Plus, as if that isn't enough, character descriptions so jaw-dropping, they actually stand out in the constant poetic fireworks display.

Luckily, amid the disenchantment, slaughter and rapine, there is loving humor and spiteful candor. The cruelty of our human frailty leaves little room for solace in the relentlessly advancing, increasingly heartless universe.

Do you like literary puzzle of the level of Infinite Jest's subliminal world building, but more approachable, horripilating narration, and characters with a wider scope and relation to society? This novel coordinates its intricate, complex, dense, Ivy League prose, infusing it with luscious imagery, lascivious charm, and wry, pithy one-liners and palindromes, luxuriant and serpentine descriptions, compounding philosophies, and atmosphere to stagger the imagination and ensorcel the senses. It is a hallucinogenic tour de force that reinvents language, with inspiring, spiraling irreverence, that encapsulates the bleak aura of our shameful and shameless history, but isn’t devoid of compassion. Beware the seamlessly blent portmanteau words and regional dialect. They require a double-take, but are appreciated upon reflection. It's a memorable ride, so fast and loose and smooth you’ll feel lashed and used and moved.

Pay particular attention to:
Drake and Donnie’s encounter with Setif’s ex’s gang resulting in a display worthy of their ancestors.

Hector's encounter with the snake versus Eddie's encounter with the snake, and what each reveals about the characters.

How the omniscient narrator skip-traces through each generation.

How Hector’s Odyssey is reminiscent of Crusoe’s solo survival. It is a declarative master class on how to describe character interactions with their environment

Don't miss Easter eggs in the chapter titles and puns in the character names.

Prepare for tall tales, a grizzly affair or two, a very scary midget, multi-generational bloodthirsty feuds, disillusioned gunslingers and rapacious claim-jumpers, landmines and their accompanying human potpourri, and literary devices juggled like a circus performer adding bowling pins until you lose count.

This is Gold Rush country, even in the modern age, full of slurs, slants & baggy pants, home of the free built upon the graves of the braves. What is the expense of our freedoms? What is the cost of its preservation? "Empires carry the seeds of their own destruction." The mythic force of human desire does not counteract our animalistic nature. Our ancestors are inescapable, no matter how estranged we think we are.

What's left is clarity and consistent invention, the force of a great raconteur, historical and microcosmic details, bravado, and bold humor around every turn. Some sentences are polished to the atomic level and others erupt like a widening whirlpool of malleable lava.

Desolate and teeming, this book discusses how hardship and struggle echo through time and across landscapes, touches families and dissolve loves. Inhabiting a skewed and tilted reality, it is about fathership above all - of children, of a name, of a nation, of a legend, of a disaster, and of a godless destiny. The steel-girt profunditties, the growling, prowling, scowling, howling, simply lovely writing, the phantasmagloric rabblearousing, un-pandering, double, no triple, entendre-ing, and tongue-in-cheek full-of-our-babies-merry-go-round-on-fire harsch dose of Reality qualify The Manifold Destiny of Eddie Vegas as a bonified masterpiece.

Now to end with a handful of my favorite quotes from the book:

"The land shapes a man's destiny, however appallingly insignificant."

"A full fed feller with a full-fledged fire."

"Solitude maketh of man many an oddity."

"You just aren't self-aware enough to be aware of other selves."

"My decision is flannel."

"The desert tries to impress it absences on you, but it is full, dry but ripe."

"On bad days I am at least four decades shabbier than Eastern Europe." ( )

I've had the pleasure to be an early reader of Rick Harsch's latest novel "The manifold destiny of Eddie Vegas”. It is a very entertaining book, exceptionally well written and with a theme that will certainly unsettle you with its terrible truths.

While “The Manifold Destiny” is written for the experienced reader of sophisticate taste, Rick Harsch, devoid of the usual authorial arrogance, respects and is kind to his audience. Even if his book is written in an elaborate language and artfully crafted sentences there is always sufficient “story" to pique your curiosity and enough entertaining things unfolding on the pages to keep you reading all along the 700 pages. That and the manageable length of each chapter is a relief from the doorstoppers which seem to be so fashionable nowadays! Unlike the Gaddises, the Wallaces and other Don Dellilo behemoths, Harsch's works come in an acceptable and digestible word - count format.

In the "Manifold Destiny" two storylines develop parallel to each other. Both narrative arcs are separated by a few hundred years but merge towards each other as the narration reaches the end. One storyline develops in the present and follows two young men on their peregrinations between Europe and the USA, with the occasional flash-back to recent history: Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan. Both men wrestle with father - issues at the same time their fathers struggle with their own toxic legacy.

The second storyline describes the adventures of the earlier forefathers of the main character, each of them a witness of, and a minor player in those bygone periods of heroic Americana myth: The Mountain Men, the Oregon trail, the Gold rush, the Indian wars, the Boot-legging...

Harsch debunks these historical and heroically chunks of Americana by reminding the reader that what drives these “heroic times” is nothing more than opportunism, greed, violence, racism, genocide and a continent-wide ecocide. The chapters playing out in the "present time" (Afghanistan, Iraq and Vietnam) do not need to be demythologized as they are remembered in our collective memory as violent moments causing enormous damages to indigenous populations. Still, here too, Harsch digs up lesser known horrific facts to avoid any possible tendency to describe war as heroic: Psychological warfare in Vietnam, Commercial competition of the private military militias in Iraq, war crimes in Afghanistan and the blind terror of the all-seeing drones.

Harsch is at times funny, sad, angry or serious, but the total world view resulting from all this is bleak. The characters seem to move around on the whim and without clear goals. As already made clear in the witty title of the book, man’s destiny, (if destiny there is), or multiple destinies are largely dependent on the roll of the dice or the shuffle of the cards.

The metaphor of poker, or gambling in general, is seeping through all chapters. That one finds himself in an uncomfortable situation is often caused by a random chain of events.
"Fucking Keno" is after all the memorable first and damning opening sentence.

The feature of this novel, most likely to delight even the most blasé reader, is Rick Harsch exciting writing. Harsch is a true word - wizard, a sentence - crafter of rare talent. Cunningly and with a permanent twinkle in the eye he hand-picks words, kneads them to his liking and assembles them in elaborate phrases. His recounting of the history of the American West, using a vast array of highly sophisticated narrative techniques has something highly eclectic and comic at the same time. Imagine James Joyce rephrasing the stories of Fennimore Cooper, De Lillo editing the action scenes written by Sebastian Junger or Gaddis correcting Raymond Chandler. Understandably, it is not an easy book, it is after all aimed at the more experienced readers. Any confidence with the literary techniques of American Pomo or Modernism will help appreciate the skills deployed in the novel. Reading notes are the “rigeur" for those who intend to fully enjoy the read.

And a great read it is. Harsch shows he is really a Master of the Word. At key moments of the novel, Harsch stops assembling sentences and offers the reader only words. Words in a series of lists; multiple page long lists of seemingly random words, you are likely to skim to proceed for further impatient reading. But these lists, which should be read attentively, preferably viva voce as in a religious litany, contain more than the eye first notices.

The last list, when it’s terrible secret dawns on you, will certainly shock.

Rick Harsch has with his "Manifold destiny of Eddy Vegas” written a Masterpiece and as far as I am concerned, as good a candidate for the “Great American Novel” as any other more celebrated book.

You might argue that Harsch is lesser known than his best-selling peers.

That’s my point:

So was Melville in his days.

Highly recommended! ( )