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The Rachel Condition
The Rachel Condition is at once a political thriller, a family saga, and a mind-bending love story that plays out through the mysterious byways of Detroit. Antony has ostensibly traveled to Detroit in search of the last copy of a dangerous political novel, but his true purpose is to infiltrate a tight circle of political dissidents. Rachel appears to be working for the Detroit-based insurgency, but her loyalties are complicated. They meet at a dive bar with a dangerous Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom pinball machine and a malevolent bartender named Paul. There’s also Patti, of the proto-punk band Psycho Femmes; Julia, whose uncle founded the Detroit chapter of the Black Panthers; The Commander, also known as Charlotte; The Colonel, who wears many uniforms so to speak; and Yama, a doom metal band that literally plays eternal, one-note songs. Nothing is as it seems, no one can be trusted, and, as Rachel reminds Antony, everything is different in retrospect. History, as Rachel knows, is written by the victors, and this goes for personal history, too. The Rachel Condition tells a story of tenderness and the power of art to create and destroy in the midst of violence and chaos.
244 pages, Paperback
Published April 30, 2024
About the author
Nicholas Rombes
19 books27 followersNicholas Rombes works in Detroit. The Absolution of Roberto Acestes Laing (Two Dollar Radio, 2014) is his first novel which, according to Elizabeth Hand, is "beautiful and nightmarish" and which Brian Evenson describes as "smart and slyly unsettling." And Evan Calder Williams says: "Suffused with the best elements and obscure conspiracies of Bolaño, Ligotti, and speculative fiction, Rombes' work gnaws away at the limits of what a novel looks like." He has written for The Believer, The Rumpus, The Oxford American and the Los Angeles Review of Books.
ROBERTO!
ROBERTO!
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
August 7, 2024
There's obviously a lot here that grab my attention: the multiple unreliable narrators, the murky philosophies and conflicts of the two political factions, Detroit's urban decay and guerrilla transformations, ambiguous messages and uncanny slippages. I'm enjoying this overall, though I remember Rombes' first novel The Absolution of Roberto Acestes Laing, maybe has a tighter execution and more infectious momentum.
Rombes does a nice job with the voices, with Rachel's ambivalences , Antony's quiet, nervous restraint, and the Colonel's bravura. When we finally get to read the annotated "political novel", it seems more of a pretext for the thriller tropes than anything else. But overall this was pretty entertaining and deserves more attention (I'm the 2nd rating?); Rombes' first novel is maybe even stronger.
Rombes does a nice job with the voices, with Rachel's ambivalences , Antony's quiet, nervous restraint, and the Colonel's bravura. When we finally get to read the annotated "political novel", it seems more of a pretext for the thriller tropes than anything else. But overall this was pretty entertaining and deserves more attention (I'm the 2nd rating?); Rombes' first novel is maybe even stronger.
Displaying 1 of 1 review