ISBN: 0-88739-363-2
192 pp.
Size: 6 x 9
Pub Date: 10/2001
Paperback Original
Price: $13.95
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Wild Dreams of Reality
Jerry Ratch
"I became a fool for Adrienne Parker the first moment I set eyes on her." So proclaims Philip Janov, as he begins his escape into life and freedom-an escape that calls into question the last fifteen years of his life and forces a reexamination of family loyalty. Successful, middle-aged, and caught in a sour marriage to a misanthropic woman ten years his senior, Philip sells houses and makes money. He also writes poems inspired by the works of Gauguin and Monet.... And Adrienne Parker is an artist.
Philip's older brother, Darrell, grows and sells gourmet mushrooms, is married to a beautiful, fun-loving jewelry-maker, and has an adorable eight-year-old daughter. But as Philip blossoms in his new life, Darrell-the brother Philip turned to for advice when they were teenagers, who saved his life when they were children-becomes increasingly needy, descending into an obsessive, ever-more-dangerous jealous rage.
One man gets it together, another falls apart, and Jerry Ratch mixes a potent brew of magic mushrooms, jealousy, alcohol, dead rats, green trucks, and red Saabs in a story that is rich with insight and atmosphere.
Review: "The almost, but not quite innocent directness of Ratch's savvy little novel is irresistible to me. I read it in a sitting. I'm glad real writers still want to write books this way."
-Richard Ford, author of The Sportswriter and Independence Day
"Jerry Ratch's novel of low jinks in Berkeley goes off like a packet of Chinese firecrackers, and never stops popping."
-Oakley Hall, author of Downhill Racer and Warlock
Bio: JERRY RATCH is the author of eleven books of poetry, including Puppet X and Hot Weather: Selected Poems. Born in Chicago, he currently lives in an artist's loft in Berkeley, California with his wife, artist Sherry Karver.
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