On the first day of spring in the
Inland Empire of Southern California, our narrator Joe inadvertently rams his
car into Ronnie, a homeless man riding a bicycle. The bike is crushed, aluminum
cans are scattered, but a new relationship is formed. Joe encounters Ronnie and
his dog Henry at the local dog park, at their campsite by the Santa Ana River,
and in other, unexpected locations.
Seemingly content working in a café
and leading an aimless life, Joe is twenty-eight and has started writing prose
poems and short stories. He walks the streets at night, rides buses to nowhere
in particular, swims in the ocean on a whim?sometimes naked, sometimes fully
clothed. He is dating Ashley, a transplant from the Midwest who shares his
birthday and birthyear and is a poetry professor at a small Christian college.
Joe talks to himself, he talks to God, he talks to the dog he acquires. He is
in love with Ashley yet longs for his ex, Cora, too.
Reminiscent
of John Fante's Ask the Dust, Flannery O'Connor's The Violent Bear It
Away, and Denis Johnson's Train Dreams, this novel explores themes
of solitude, companionship, and personal fulfillment.