The Wasteland

By Harper H. Jameson and W.A.W. Parker

Fans of T.S. Eliot and Moonlight will love this highly recommended book. (Screencraft)

"Oh my God, this book. This book . . . drop everything you're doing and start flipping pages right now." —Tissie, Bookshelves & Teacups blog



The extraordinary career and devastating life of T.S. Eliot.

T.S. Eliot is a hollow man trapped in a dreary world. He works at a bank, a slave to the clock, the same routine, day after day. While London's elite enjoy a Great Gatsby lifestyle and poets like Robert Frost are rock stars, attracting thousands of fans to each reading, Mr. Eliot walks past life, peering at it through cracks or around corners. Only in his imagination does the world drip with color.

Then one day he comes across Jack, an out and proud gay man being badly beaten, and something compels him to intervene. Life will never be the same.

Jack introduces Mr. Eliot to the gay underground of early twentieth-century London and to feelings Mr. Eliot had crammed down and locked away. And with freedom comes poetry. Extraordinary poetry that takes London by storm. But as Mr. Eliot's fame increases, pressure for conformity does as well. Religious intolerance, fascism's increasingly popular message of traditional values, and the allure of untold success present him with a decision that could have devastating consequences.

The Wasteland is the untold story of T.S. Eliot, his secret struggle with being gay, the people left in the wake of his meteoric career trajectory, and the madness that helped produce his greatest work.



"For poetry lovers and thrill seekers. The ride through the mind of a mad literary genius will leave you dazed and confused and highly entertained." —Mary Wollstonecrafty, Amazon reviewer

"Wow! This is an amazing book...wholly original. Briskly paced, page-turning action." —Screencraft

"This is a wild, wild poetic ride. If you're an Eliot fan (especially if you know why he used the middle initial), read this book. If you've always wondered about dear Tom, read this book!" —Julie B., Amazon reviewer

"The writing is lyrical and colorful, but clearly still prose (for anyone who shies away from poetry), and the story is engaging and captivating, occasionally fantastical and trippy, and explores the pressure to conform to societal norms." —Amazon reviewer

• Language: English
• Publisher: Level 4 Press, Inc.
• Release date: Jan 5, 2021
• ISBN: 9781646300433

Book preview

Reviews for The Wasteland

[richardderus · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Real Rating: 3.75* of five, rounded up for its verveThe Publisher Says: The extraordinary career and devastating life of T.S. Eliot.T.S. Eliot is a hollow man trapped in a dreary world. He works at a bank, a slave to the clock, the same routine, day after day. While London’s elite enjoy a Great Gatsby lifestyle and poets like Robert Frost are rock stars, attracting thousands of fans to each reading, Mr. Eliot walks past life, peering at it through cracks or around corners. Only in his imagination does the world drip with color.Then one day he comes across Jack, an out and proud gay man being badly beaten, and something compels him to intervene. Life will never be the same.Jack introduces Mr. Eliot to the gay underground of early twentieth-century London and to feelings Mr. Eliot had crammed down and locked away. And with freedom comes poetry. Extraordinary poetry that takes London by storm. But as Mr. Eliot’s fame increases, pressure for conformity does as well. Religious intolerance, fascism’s increasingly popular message of traditional values, and the allure of untold success present him with a decision that could have devastating consequences.The Wasteland is the untold story of T.S. Eliot, his secret struggle with being gay, the people left in the wake of his meteoric career trajectory, and the madness that helped produce his greatest work.I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.My Review: Sadness. Grey, enveloping sadness. That's the take-away I had from this technically adept reinvention of poet T.S Eliot's early-1920s life in London. Even if there were no light on the bank, Mr. Eliot would still know it was there. It's always there, waiting to welcome him with open arms, more than willing to take more tocks from his clock.–and–"We return you now to our regular broadcast," the announcer drones."Clair de Lune." Claude Debussy. Relaxation. Baloney.Baloney indeed, and more than just that in a penitential dry sandwich consumed in a lonely penitentiary. With the aplomb of a dab hand at this fantastical-reimaging stuff, Eliot's life is peopled with the souls embodied and conjured on a magical-realist visit with the great poet. We even see him conjuring Mr. J. Alfred Prufrock (whose peaches are uneaten and coffee spoons resolutely empty) on the day he learns his new crush, Jack, is no longer with the bank. But Mr. Eliot is in for a major surprise in this case.......as are the readers of this historical fantasia on themes of gay men's circumscribed lives. Mr. Eliot, for I cannot bear to call him Tom, is a creative and passionate soul in the body of a Puritan. He is deformed and damaged by a world he despises as he obeys it. Mr. Eliot will get his revenge. He blares forth a trumpet of poetic passion that has stood its ground atop English-language poetry. Its creator is given, here, by Author Jameson, a life that commingles reality and fantasy as only a poet could merit, warrant, summon forth from beyond the grave's creative silence.