A.G. Lombardo has burst forth with a Murakami-ian debut. Stunning and beautifully written prose. Especially affecting if you come from the south central Los Angeles that he is writing about here. Fantastic and absurd and entertaining and just toally mesmerizing.

If you have not had a chance to read it - it's totally worth it: it's the 60s LA riots as a retelling of the Odyssey. As someone who loves LA and grew up in South Central Los Angeles reading the novel was thrilling; as it's constantly referring to streets I grew up around and it's all about the LA that I'm most familiar with. Even if you are not familiar with Los Angeles the story is still powerful and the details that are highly specific to Angelenos would I feel not be lost on those not from the area.

There are segments that go off in a wild, in a great way, speculations on city planning, architecture, time, and mythology and the mythology of Los Angeles itself.

It's so freaking good. ( )