From Los Angeles-based film composer, multi-instrumentalist, and US Air Force vet Bobby Johnston comes The Saint I Ain't (Fomite Press, 2/9/2021), a work of literary fiction, a coming of age elegy chronicled through short poignant stories (122 pages) set in 1970s Rust Belt America. Bobby's composer credits have landed him accolades in the original scores for directors Larry Clark and Laura Gabbert, documentaries "City of Gold" and "Bleed Out" (HBO) as well as features on Ira Glass' This American Life program on NPR.
Notwithstanding Johnston's popular acclaim, this debut work, studded with non-conformist lyricism on piles of triggering* topics, is not for everybody. The hybrid combination of prose and personal narrative featuring sinners, saints, and saviours leans on tragic humour to transcend a subtext of fear and desperation, ultimately arriving at a position of bittersweet yet triumphant survival.
These stories are for and about rascals.***
When I walked out the front door of the house I grew up in, I saw undergarments drying in the wind. SYCAMORE STREET
***
(@FomitePress, 9 February 2021, 200 pages, ebook, #ARC from the publisher via # NetGalley and voluntarily reviewed)
***
***
This book sounded interesting. I was in the book for something a little different, so I downloaded a copy. I'm glad I did. I really enjoyed the stories on offer here. The stories seem to be quite autobiographical but maybe I'm reading to much into it? I loved the fact the stories take place before social medical, smartphones and the digital world we embrace. Can we remember a time before Twitter and Facebook? I liked the language used in the book, quite poetic at times. I'd recommend these.
