On Neutral Zones
()
About this ebook
An unnamed narrator. A Westchester house and a patch of lawn. A distant marital partner and a dissolute daughter. A stack of unopened bills in the middle of a kitchen table bought on a chain store credit card. The crushing weight of a dying empire. The overpowering urge to flee. But where is there to run? One day while trudging his usual steps to Grand Central after wrapping up at the office, the narrator stumbles upon one of the several “pod hotels” now occupying New York City, a hip takeoff on the tiny transient quarters long occupied by Japanese businessmen. “pod”. Within those three letters our narrator finds his answer, his obsession, his salvation. Over the course of three scorching weeks in late summer, our narrator encounters guiding apparitions disguised as co-workers, flees his dead empire for life in the pods, and falls into a pattern of day-to-day efficiency and contentedness that had previously eluded him in the chaos and open space of the outer world. Joined by a growing cult of fellow pod dwellers, he wonders how long it will take for the disorder of the outer realms to make its way into their condensed and well-organized utopia. Forming an unlikely alliance with a private investigator sent to look into his disappearance, he sets out on an offbeat quest to save his daughter while struggling to maintain his newly compartmentalized existence. Dealing with the death of the traditional American household, concepts of alternative housing and voluntarily fluid living patterns, and the universal desire to get out from under the cumbersome dead weight of life choices and the self-created twin albatrosses of responsibility and societal advancement, On Neutral Zones is as thought-provoking as it is entertaining. Taut but emotional, humorous but dealing with potent concepts, this is a truly modern novel that just may predict a number of important future migrations bubbling under the surface of our rapidly morphing society.
Daniel Falatko
Daniel Falatko is the author of two previous novels, Condominium (CCLAP, 2014) and Travels & Travails Of Small Minds (Ardent Press, 2017). His music writing can be found on niche-appeal.com. A graduate of the MFA in Creative Writing program at Vermont College, he lives, writes, and works in New York City.
Related to On Neutral Zones
Related ebooks
The Stanford Solution Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe City Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Alternator Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Lost Pages Bookstore Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsContrapose Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Lad and the Ring: The Lad of the Rings, #2 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHalf Past the Dead of Night Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGirl by the Road at Night: A Novel of Vietnam Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Circle of Shadows Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIn Some Sense Innocent Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Going Out of Business: Everything's for Sale Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMelody of Murder: A Scott Drayco Mystery Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Hobby Horse Murder Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Little Game Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThis Thing of Darkness: An Inspector Green Mystery Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Green Mouse Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAll the Pretty Toys Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPrecedent: Munroe & Hillstead, #1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Stone War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Black Tide Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsInk: A Novel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEmotion: Hard Wired: Fifth And Dent, #2 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThree Wrong Turns in the Desert Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Six Years' Worth Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWho’s Going to Say Kaddish for the Chinaman’s Dog?: A Love Story Set in South Central Tennessee Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNecessity Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Something Went Cold Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Shark: & other stories Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Devil's Due: Jack Carson Stories, #1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBlind Visions from Heaven: Based on a true story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Literary Fiction For You
Little Birds: Erotica Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Annihilation: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5East of Eden Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Life of Pi: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I Who Have Never Known Men Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Covenant of Water (Oprah's Book Club) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Demon Copperhead: A Pulitzer Prize Winner Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Handmaid's Tale Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Sympathizer: A Novel (Pulitzer Prize for Fiction) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tender Is the Flesh Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Flowers for Algernon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ocean at the End of the Lane: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5All the Ugly and Wonderful Things: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lady Tan's Circle of Women: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pride and Prejudice: Bestsellers and famous Books Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Old Man and the Sea: The Hemingway Library Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Catch-22: 50th Anniversary Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Piranesi Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I'm Thinking of Ending Things: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Silmarillion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Farewell to Arms Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cloud Cuckoo Land: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Anna Karenina: Bestsellers and famous Books Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Confederacy of Dunces Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Prophet Song: A Novel (Booker Prize Winner) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Leave the World Behind: A Read with Jenna Pick Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Nigerwife: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for On Neutral Zones
0 ratings0 reviews