Gregory Mose

“Stunt Road” is a novel – almost a roman-a-clef – which examines a fairly simple and straight-forward experience, what I called the ‘Oh-s**t!’ event. At the top of a steep, snowy mountain, a small child casually makes a snowball and starts it rolling – and then watches in absolute horror as the snowball gets bigger, and bigger as it rolls down the mountainside, gathering mass and density – until it reaches the bottom of the mountain, where it swiftly derails a train, bounds across a highway, sending automobiles and trucks flying every which way – and finally smashes into the outskirts of a city below, wrecking houses and heading toward downtown, still getting bigger and even more destructive. Less imaginative people might call it a narrative of unintended consequences – most of them very, very bad, especially for the relatively innocent person who set the snowball to rolling.

In “Stunt Road” the snowball is started off on it’s journey of destruction by Peter McFadden, once a designer of computer generated imagery, now unemployed and reduced to living in his increasingly resentful girlfriend’s condo. He can’t seem to find a job in the field that he loves. His oldest and dearest friends – Diego the movie director, Emily the math teacher and former girl-friend he has never gotten over, and Susan, his oldest friend and now psychologist - are worried about him. They are also relieved, when a chance encounter at an up-scale party affords him a challenge which might lead to gainful employment. Peter must create – from whole cloth - a system to tell fortunes, make it all up, every detail. A pinch of astrology, a touch of Scientology, a scoop of pseudoscience, a sprinkling of practical psychology and there it is: Horokinetics. And before Peter’s disbelieving eyes, the snowball is halfway down the mountain, having become Hollywood’s next big spiritual fad. His innocent and seemingly harmless invention is taken up all too efficiently by a manipulative guru who becomes the public face of his fortune-telling, fortune-generating machine – and a corporate mogul whose connections and motivations Peter can only guess at. And there is not a damned thing that he can do to redeem himself, except to watch the destruction, and wonder if he could have done anything else.

Although a large part of the interest in “Stunt Road” is the path of the snowball down-hill – that is the marketing of Horokinetics, and how a little invention can be induced to become a major fad – for me, the physical setting of “Stunt Road” was a major charm. I grew up in Southern California, and was quite familiar with many of the locales: Topanga Canyon, the suburban San Fernando Valley – both the well-to-do, and the not-so-well-to-do parts, and those stretches of chaparral and dirt roads which reach back into the hills – where you can indeed go horseback riding among the live oaks and mountain laurel, and think that you are the only person around for miles.

The author is a more than competent storyteller; the plot unfolds in a straight line, more or less. My only criticism would be that the various characters are not as individual in their speech and actions: I needed to refresh my memory now and again of which character was which, and what was their relationship to Peter. If anything, though, reading this account should to disabuse anyone from putting any credence in any popularly reported spiritual fad.
… (meer)

Stunt Road by Gregory Mose

Gregory Mose takes the reader on a whirlwind ride into the world of the obscure, enlightening, mystic, and colorful world of Horokinetics. Never heard of Horokinetics? Oh, you will in this book, and enjoy the journey. Unemployed Pete McFadden, along with his old college friend and mathematician Emily, and childhood friend and psychologist, Susan take on a project thrown out almost as a challenge by the person Pete has been trying to get a job interview with. He is promised an interview if he can produce a program "as good as" astrology but based on science, a program which he and his friends have successfully produced based on pure math. Something profound, dedicated, prophetic and insightful.

When his challenger reneges and doesn't even return his calls, Pete is devastated. He takes a long drive up into the mountains, gets out of the car and gives in to memories and self-deprecation over his apparent latest folly. He is so deep into his thoughts that he doesn't realize he is not alone. A man on horseback has come up the trail behind him. Both begin to talk and it appears that both are soul-searching and currently unemployed. Jake does not laugh at Pete's program but seems very interested in it and soon has turned Pete's thoughts to positive ones.

The journey of selling his idea and program begins as Pete finds himself at a table with his program and Jake at a "New Age" fair, a place he never dreamed of being at any point in his life. The book begins to take on an entirely different, and yet still similar forward movement. Over the next several chapters there is mystery, suspense, mythology, corporate greed, mistrust, and many more elements and switches. The author combines fractals, chaos and philosophies in such a fluid way the reader won't find the sometimes obscure words difficult. The beginning of the book in particular is quite tongue-in-cheek humorous, but becomes more serious in later chapters. There is quite frankly a lot that can be learned about ourselves as a whole without effort within these pages. On the other hand, the book contains, and in some way combines, the unscrupulous with purity.

I've never read a book quite like Stunt Road. It is fascinating, depressing, joyful, cynical, provocative and even deadly, all at one go. Quite an undertaking for a first novel. The range of characters really breathes life into the story. Without the strong characterizations, this would be a different book. The ending brings to mind Robert Frost's poem "The Road Not Taken" and the lines

"...Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference."

I am left to wonder, which road did Peter take when he came to the crossroad at the end of the book? 4 ½ stars… (meer)

This was an unusual and entertaining story. I read it in one day and couldn't put it down. I liked the premise of inventing a system of divination just to show it can be done (and that people will buy into it). I found most of the main characters to be well developed and believable.

At times, the character of Peter exasperated me with his inaction and naivete. However, the behavior rang true to his character. His social awkwardness and obliviousness in his relationships made him interesting and sometimes comical.

*Spoiler Alert* (sort of)

While I liked the character of Peter, I wanted to hate Jake, but just couldn't. The development of his character was so successful that even at the end of the book, I couldn't dislike him. That he remained a likable character right through to the end makes him all the more sinister.

I wonder if there is a sequel in the works because I can't believe a character would be allowed to simply walk away, especially after the smear campaign and threats. I guess I just want to see the little guy truly win in the end.… (meer)