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THE GOPHER KING BY GOJAN NIKOLICH
Beyond the obvious category of Literary Fiction to which The Gopher King by Gojan Nikolich belongs, this profoundly literate work is best described using pithy, deeply meaningful, single adjectives. Hallucinogenic. Meditative. Depressing. Intelligent. Poetic. Layered. And, most certainly, Literate. If one wishes to clarify these descriptions further, making them more accurate and precise, he need only precede them with appropriate qualifiers. Highly. Deeply. Profoundly. Then, to amplify the meaning of this highly layered book, he might listen carefully to the words of its profoundly, highly troubled narrator.
“I … wondered how it would be nice to have two lives to live, one for practice and the next to finally get things right.”
The plot of The Gopher King by Gojan Nikolich is difficult to convey. I shall give it my best shot. But, advance warning: Once you buy into the hallucination, it is too late to remain objective. A Vietnam Vet with an impossible last name lives out his later years as the self-ordained News Editor in a local – impossibly local – prairie town agonizing its way toward suburban blight. To say the man has PTSD, or to say he is simply troubled or plagued with demons is to underestimate his own evaluation: “It was so much more than simple, explainable sorrow.” He self-medicates. A lot. He hallucinates. A lot. And, lest you think this troubled man is the main protagonist in this multi-leveled tale, the title should alert you. The Gopher King (literally) appears (literally, I think.) A prairie dog named Chaz. El Jefe de los Excavadores. What happens between these two struggling souls would be ruined by further explication. Just know, the writing alone will leave you breathless.
G. NIKOLICH
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Joel R. Dennstedt – Top Reviewer for Readers’ Favorite
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