Right now, I’m only keeping the synopsis of Prism on the website.  I hope to post a synopsis of Tether, my next novel, shortly, but, well, it’s going to be a while.  If you’d like to read a snippet of Prism, please click here. 

Short Synopsis: Prism

 

Prism puts the reader on the sidelines of the sometimes shocking, edgy and often comical ways of the day-to-day life of slackers.  The novel follows five twenty-somethings through their symbiotic relationships with one another: (a) Pete, a desolate investment banker who seeks to control everyone around him; (b) Gene, Pete’s frumpy, underloved accountant roommate; (c) Jessie, an aspiring actress who has slipped into the easy money of internet pornography; (d) Rebecca, a painter who rarely picks up her brush, blaming everyone else for her inadequacies; and (e) Kelly, an investment banker desperate to be viewed as worthwhile by her peers. 

 

Prism, written in the style of reality television, examines emotional scarring, substance abuse, pornography, rape and other societal ills.  By ‘reality television’ I do not mean that I create an artificial context for the characters; rather, I change the lens with which we view the characters on a regular basis, shifting perspective and giving multiple views of the same event.  In this way, my novel is similar to Akutagawa’s Rashomon or the recent movie Crash. 

 

There are three main storylines within Prism: (a) the dissolution of the friendship between Pete and Gene, caused by Pete’s unstable lifestyle and desire to control Gene’s life; (b) the unwilling romance between Gene and Rebecca; and (c) the downfall of Pete’s constructed environment, which is interwoven with the other two plotlines.  The two other main characters, Jessie and Kelly, interact primarily with Pete – both have failed relationships with him – and serve to highlight aspects of Pete’s personality. 

 

The friendship between Pete and Gene is predicated on a simple assumption: that Pete is the person whom Gene wishes to become.  Gene masks his jealousy of Pete’s myriad sexual encounters through his acerbic wit; however, after hitting a low point by accidentally setting the apartment on fire, Gene forces himself to find someone to complete his life or, at the very least, date him.  Pete takes it upon himself to set Gene up on a date with Rebecca, a relationship he never expects to go anywhere.  Gene becomes punch-drunk obsessed with Rebecca, and Pete tries a variety of strategies to break the couple apart, all predicated on the notion that Rebecca is a bad fit for Gene.  Finally, after Pete loses his job as an investment banker due to lewd conduct in the office with Kelly, a co-worker, and damages his relationship with Jessie, his best friend, beyond repair, he gives up his assault on Rebecca and begins to evaluate reassembling his life differently.

 

Rebecca and Gene, following their set-up, are not attracted mutually.  Although Rebecca thinks Gene is nice, she also finds him a bit boring and is unwilling to date him.  Nonetheless, to appease Jessie, who is also her best friend, she agrees to go out on a date with Gene, who gloms onto Rebecca and almost immediately sucks her into a relationship.  Following an uneventful date, Rebecca, through a series of difficult relationships with co-workers and her roommate, loses the lease on her apartment and, lacking other options, agrees to spend a few nights on Gene’s couch.  Rebecca moves out periodically, despising herself for living with a man whom she does not love but unable to break away from the comfort he provides.  By the end of Prism, Gene has convinced himself to propose to Rebecca over Pete’s strenuous objections, and Rebecca tries to figure out if she can learn to love Gene if she opens herself up to him.

 

Pete’s downfall starts as Gene pulls away from him to spend more time with Rebecca.  While he tries to force Gene back into the role of the beta male, Pete also finds that work is taking up all of his time and that he does not have the resources to dedicate himself fully to breaking up Gene and Rebecca.  Complicating matters, he sleeps with Jessie, ruining what had been his only close friendship.  He begins to flirt with Kelly, an abusive co-worker, but after Pete gets caught having sex in the bathroom of his office with Kelly and they are both fired for their indiscretion, Pete runs back to Jessie, who accepts his apologies until Pete tries to convert himself into Jessie’s online pimp.  At this point, Jessie abandons their friendship entirely, and Pete is left to consider suicide halfheartedly while wondering if he can re-ingratiate himself to Gene after trying to raze all of his roommate’s relationships.

 

Prism is about the slow process of change and the shifting definition of ‘normal.’  There are no ‘ah-ha’ moments in my novel; each character, in keeping with his or her disaffected persona, prefers trudging towards normalcy over dramatic change, and the most abhorrent act can pass him/her by without any noticeable adjustment in his/her life.  The conversion away from ambivalence towards everything is dissected carefully throughout the novel, and, as a result, a wide variety of readers are able to understand and relate to my characters.  These may not be the people you want as neighbors or children, but there is a little Pete, Gene, Jessie, Rebecca or Kelly in each of us.

 

While the point of the novel is slow, dawning consciousness, the pace of the writing is very, very fast, with most readers finishing its 396 pages in four to six hours.  Readers, who are already used to the brisk cuts used on television and popular mystery novels, are thrown into a rapid-fire world of parties, drugs, alcohol, questionable sexual encounters, excessive money and morning hangovers.  I use a minimalist writing style for most portions of the novel so that readers are catapulted forward; moreover, much of the novel is written as dialogue, facilitating quick reading.  My readers are energized continually by the twists in plot and by their urge to reach out and help these people get their lives together.

 

Prism is unique in the genre of books that deal with this cultural milieu: it is dark, edgy and funny while dealing with people who, on the surface, appear to be overachievers.  Moreover, my use of a reality television writing technique keeps the reader excited.  And, most importantly, the book is a fun, non-taxing read that still compels a reader to think about a variety of societal ills long after he/she finishes reading: Prism has the ability to both spark debate and to be read by a wide spectrum of readers.

 

If you want to read the first chapter of Prism, click here.

Synopsis of my book(s)