Böcker av Homer Jackson Lamour

This work can be classified as post modernist absurdist literaturein the style of Joseph Heller and Mervyn Peake. It is not a fantasynovel although there is a degree of whimsy within it. Neither is it adystopian work although it does include elements of imminentcalamity.The plot centres on a middle-aged indolent, ineffectual protagonist, who struggles to cope in an environment of incompetence, greed, irrationality and apathy. He bumbles along from one calamity toanother in an irrational and demanding environment. There is asubplot with another character, a seagull-riding pixie, who has thesame character attributes and is surrounded by disorganised andincompetent sycophants who mismanage their affairs in an equallychaotic fashion.All the action takes place within 'The City', a thinly disguisedsobriquet for Blackpool and its environs. The population areengaged in a perpetual internecine struggles with rival groups, ina milieu of conformity, tradition and narrow-minded ineptitude, overseen by a meddlesome, ineffectual government department.Their efforts of all the characters are frantic and comicallyendearing but underlying the action is the ubiquitous theme ofdestruction of the environment and the doom that must inevitablyfollow.In the introduction, the author promises a 'straightforwardnarrative', starting at the beginning and working to a conclusion, but immediately breaks that promise and shuffles, seeminglyrandomly, from one period to another, creating a history of TheCity in a anarchic manner. The disordered timescale is indicativeof the randomness of the City's development and indeed theworld's progress, for the City can be seen as code for the earth. Atthe dénouement, the two protagonists eventually meet when theirrespective worlds are on the brink of destruction. The novel endsin an aura of confused despondency but with the promise ofeventual redemption.