BDSL,1- "May have to bust noses"

[bandwraith at aol.com]

p. 80, Random House, 1966. A little homonymous fore-
shadowing, a narrative nod to Gnossos's fate, the narrator
once again in his brain. But, before all that, a few corrections.
I've retrieved the book, once again, from the library- memory
is getting frayed,

 -Heff is a quadroon, not an octoroon, as I said.

 -Sebastion, not Stephen, was the cross eyed saint of the
  manger scene vandalized by Gnossos and Heff.

 -Gnossos raped Pamela Watson May, not May West, as I
  stated.

To the book- Unlike Pynchon, Farina has no problem with
dialogue, in his first, and what would turn out to be his last
novel. Even the overly hip slang seems fresh, given the
directionless blather of today's cultural stream, boxed as it
is by the constraints of text messaging, and such. But
what I'm especially noticing, during this umpteenth read,
is the amazing  energy of the narrative voice. Looking for
the source of the frenzied voice of GR? Try Farina.

And plenty of mutual thematic influence, here, as well, e.g.:

      The painter's black Saab, its two-cycle engine
      puttering with a hypnotic whine, Pappadopoulis
      slouched down in the seat, his eyes on the
      padded roof, remembering his quest in Taos,
      looking for the Connection who might tie all the
      loose ends of vicarious experience into a woven
      sign or pattern, some familiar rebus, a triangle,
      perhaps. A fish. The symbol for infinity. (p.59)

And what recent  fare does this description of a building
site resonate with:

      Tinted aluminum plates, long sheets of
      wheatherproofed glass, dymaxion torsions:
      the synthetic contents of a collective archi-
      tectural grab bag. Clean, well lighted, cheap
      to heat, functional, can be torn down and
      replaced over a long weekend or transported
      to Las Vegas by helicopter, demolition
      incorporated in the structural design. A nod
      to mortality.