The Troika

Alex, Eva and Naomi are a jeep, an old woman and a dinosaur, respectively. Or maybe not. They're walking across and endless desert and they can't die. Or maybe not. The Troika by Stepan Chapman is truly an excellent book, witty, profane, brilliant, demanding... much like Samuel R Delany's 'Dhalgren' or Philip K Dick's 'Valis' but not derivative of anything, it plays around with identity, with history, mythmaking, delusion, good, evil, insanity and redemption. It rewards repeated readings, and is rapidly becoming one of my favorite books.

Three connected, lost souls wander the desert submerged in madness and despair. Did I mention that one of them is a Jeep? This surreal story is at once intensely tragic and hopeful. I highly recommend it.

Let me start with a warning: this is a difficult book to read. You can't skim it or read without your full attention like you can with -- well, with almost everything. The characters switch bodies (or think they do), they're unreliable narrators whose perceptions may not match reality, they contradict themselves, there are flashbacks and dream sequences galore. Only well into the book is it possible to even get any idea of what's going on. As confusing as The Troika can be, it is very much worth the effort. Trust is required here. You're on a drive, but someone else is at the wheel. Slide into the moment, enjoy the view and stop worrying so much about where you're going. You *are* going somewhere, but the trip itself is the best part of the experience. There are stories and images in The Troika that will stay with me for a long, long time. There are passages in the book that are as beautiful and carefully sculpted as anything I've ever read: the line of girls with their tongues frozen to the parking meters; skating upside down along the bottom of the ice; the fish-headed sacrifice who escapes moments before her heart is cut out. I was reminded of Dick, Kafka and others, but Chapman's voice is unique and original, and he clearly has a love of language and words. The Troika was one of the strangest books I've ever read, and among the best I've come across in several years.

I am the kind of person who can't really like a movie if I can't understand it, or the plot is rife with holes. I did not have that problem with this book. Chapman's lyrical, beautiful writing carried me through this tale of three lost souls, and I loved the book because of it. This is the kind of book you want to reread the minute you finish, so you can understand it more, and experience its characters again. This is one of my favorites.

It is a strange world of machines and dinosaurs and purple suns. I get so many writers and artists and songs going through my head as I read that I have to put it down to realize it's just one book. Bits of Burroughs, Dali, Douglas Adams, Early Pink Floyd. It's all in there, I'm not kidding. It's the strangest book I've ever read because it is a dream. Not a few dream sequences, an actual dream. Take a break from reality. Plus it gives you the chance to support a small press--The Ministry of Whimsy Press. Aren't there enough Disneys out there?