825. Stone Junction

Stone Junction
Jim Dodge
1990
Around 385 pages

Talk about damning praise. Thomas Pynchon writes the introduction to this novel, which is reason enough for me to back slowly out of the room. Unfortunately, the List doesn't care that the mere mention of this man makes me violently ill, so I had to read this anyway.

Daniel Pearse is an orphaned child, taken under the wing of the Alliance of Magicians and Outlaws. Sages shape Daniel, including a card shark Zeta master. This upbringing leads him to a strange, six-pound diamond sphere, held by the U.S. government in a New Mexico vault, rumored to be the Philosopher's Stone or the Holy Grail.

Pynchon said "Reading Stone Junction is like being at a nonstop party in celebration of everything that matters." Based on my summary, it does sound like a fun party, or at least the description of a summer action movie starring Tom Holland. But Jim Dodge is a more of psychedelic type writer, so we get a lot of unlikable characters and build up that doesn't really go anywhere. 

I feel like this was a hodgepodge of much better works, so I'm not surprised that it has fallen into obscurity.  

RATING: **---

Interesting Facts:

Dodge has worked as a shepherd, apple picker, and professional gambler.

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