Tuesday, June 17, 2014

The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even / Chris F Westbury 312 p.

Isaac lives a narrow life, spending all day sitting in art museums, washing his hands, and generally avoiding the rest of humanity.  He makes friends 'in group,' his outpatient group therapy for those with OCD.  Together, he and his best friend Greg, who is obsessed with spoons and the artist Marcel Duchamp, hatch a plan to purchase an authentic chocolate grinder, made in the style of a portion of a piece by Duchamp.  (Don't ask - I didn't even try to follow some of the logic here, and I don't think the writer fully intends us to.  Just let it be.)

So the plan involves a brand-new sterilized Winnebago to make the drive from Boston to Philadelphia, where the bulk of Duchamp's work can be viewed.  But Isaac and Greg can't drive, so they hire Isaac's new non-group friend, Kelly, a doctoral student in religious studies who shares Isaac's love of a sculpture of the Biblical Abraham and Isaac that they've been gazing at together.

This is apparently Westbury's first novel, but it doesn't read like one.  Circuitous mental processes aside, this is delightful.  Westbury clearly is indulging some of his own obsessions, and yet his characters are full of sweetness and depth.  And the construction of the book is far more controlled than the wild thematic shifts would make it seem.  Not for everyone, but if you're looking for something unusual, give it a try.

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