Dissolute Kinship: A 9/11 Road Trip
by David Antrobus
Genre: Nonfiction
6,000 words
When David Antrobus set out on a personal, reflective solo road trip from the Pacific Coast of Canada to New York City, he picked a random date: Tuesday, September 11, 2001.
This coincidence, despite the horrors of that day, proved oddly serendipitous in the sense of the author’s struggle for understanding of his own relatively small trauma, which he was then only beginning to face.
Evocations of the quiet melancholy of the landscape alongside poignant descriptions of grain elevators, motels, convenience stores and gas stations as he heads eastward across the Canadian Prairies are complemented by the dawning reality of New York City’s wounded presence looming ever nearer. Upon arrival, the author is at first haunted by the visceral horrors that remain just days after the attacks on the World Trade Centre, yet finds unexpected comfort in the people of the city as they relate their own personal trauma stories.
This title is available from Amazon US and Amazon UK, Smashwords, and Barnes and Noble.
David, how did you come up with the title for your book? Does it have any special meaning?
The “dissolute kinship” phrase is my attempt to argue for our connections over our differences, however tenuous those connections may be. We are flawed, fragile creatures, and in a very real sense, we need each other. Despite our differences, we share a kind of kinship.
Who was your favorite character and why?
I am the narrator, but I’m not my favourite character. I think New York City itself has to be my favourite character in the book.
Does your book have any underlying theme, message, or moral?
Aside from the connection aspect already mentioned, I suppose the other message was to avoid fighting fire with fire, to not react to an act of villainy as an act of war, but treat it for what it was: a heinous crime. We now all know what happened, though.
What would/could a reader or reviewer say about your writing that shows they “get” you as an author?
“I read this and I recognize the love at the centre of it all. In movie terms, I see the disquieting surrealism of Lynch while noting the ‘all things shining’ of Malick. Love, beauty and strangeness pulsing within the great darkness.”
Give us an excerpted quote from your favorite review of this book:
“[…] has a pulse, a heartbeat, a lyricism that took me beyond the smoking hole in the ground left by the 9/11 attacks on Manhattan to the soul of the people left standing, reflected in the eyes of another wounded warrior.” – Laurie Boris
Where can people learn more about your writing?
The Migrant Type: http://www.the-migrant-type.com
Book Brief Dissolute Kinship: A 9/11 Road Trip
On my wish list now. 🙂
Do read it, Yvonne. It's wonderful. And I really like this format! 😀
It's on my Kindle now:-)
It's already on my Kindle – for the break I keep promising myself.
It's on my Kindle now too, Yvonne 😉
The quote excerpted from Laurie's review, and the contributions by David Antrobus that have appeared on this site drove me to it!
Now I *must* read this, David–sounds magnificent. (And particularly of interest, since a young woman in my early-2000s writing group, Alicia Rebensdorf, also did a road trip book–very differently–around that time. I think you two need to meet!)