Bøker av T/James Reagan

Inspired by novels like Joan Didion's Play It As It Lays, Pushing Closer is a candid portrayal of one woman's journey to find herself by leaving everything behind. When an unexpected layoff gives Petra Dominick a chance to start anew, she takes it. She doesn't just leave her job, she also leaves her marriage, her home, and the state. Petra is beautiful, with an icy demeanor and a sensitivity that requires her to block out most of the world, but when she finds herself renting a room from the eccentric Tuesday Balfour, instead of shying away, she moves closer. In an effort to impress Tuesday, Petra slowly builds a life for herself, and in doing so yearns for more. When Tuesday hosts a dinner party and an intriguing woman catches Petra's attention, the possibility of romance arises and an affair ensues. With the atmosphere of a Sofia Coppola movie and laced with the wit of a Philip Roth novel, Reagan gently lets us fall in love with each of his imperfect characters.Part sapphic romance, part coming of middle-age tale, Pushing Closer forgoes the demands of relentless plot in order to feel like a walk down a suburban street on a cool autumn night.Carefully told and leisurely paced, Reagan's latest novel is a beautiful narrative that reminds us if you want it bad enough, anyone could be someone you could love. Readers who enjoyed Ottessa Moshfegh's My Year of Rest and Relaxation and Jay McInerney's Calloway Trilogy will find comfort within the pages of Pushing Closer.

In this neon-noir, Gabe, a quiet twenty-something, works at a small independent movie theater called The Waldorf. The pay is bad and the showings are never more than half full, but Gabe doesn't care, because The Waldorf is the only place where he can experience the neon blue smoke- a wintergreen pleasure that rolls off the film screen like the sweetest drug.Gabe's life is thrown into disarray when The Waldorf is closed, and he can no longer get his fix of smoke. Choosing to leave his one true love behind, Gabe sets out to find another theater that can conjure a sensation that he's become addicted to. During Gabe's road trip, his motorcycle breaks down, so he checks into The Dorchester Motor Inn until it can be fixed. While staying at the motel, Gabe meets Becky, who was instructed by a bizarre entity to meet with him. Together, the couple realizes that they might both be experiencing the same high strangeness, and this begins a search for answers. Neon Blacktop confronts such topics as the death of cinema culture, the rise in conspiracy theories, and the struggle of how to find the truth in a world overflowing with disinformation. Neon Blacktop is written in the tradition of the films of Richard Kelly, so lovers of Donnie Darko and The Box will find their craving for deeply emotional sci-fi satisfied in this story that is both intimate and sprawling.

Hot Blonde Girls With Heavy Eye Makeup tells the story of two sisters- Jillian, and Kendra. Jillian is hot and blonde, while Kendra is a social justice warrior. Jillian runs a pizza place/ bar/ salon called Blondies, while Kendra doesn't really do much of anything. When Blondies refuses to serve a group of brunettes, Kendra's life goal becomes to destroy her sister's business. We follow Jillian as she attempts to keep Blondies running, her employees happy, and her sister at bay. The book eventually becomes the female version of the bloods vs. the crips, where the brunettes go to battle against the blondes. Told in a bold, unique voice, HBGWHEM presents a darkly humorous look at female entrepreneurship, sisterhood, and the disturbingly common trend of the loudest voices getting the most attention.

Beach House Burning is a novel about being in your 30s, life not turning out how you hoped, dealing with who you've become, and wondering when it's time to give up on a friend. While serving as a sequel to Reagan's first novel, Lovetrust, a reader can pick this book up without having read a page of Lovetrust and will still have a full experience.Set a decade-and-a-half after Lovetrust, Beach House Burning finds Kurt Jones reconnecting with his friends from high school. During this reunion, each friend reveals that their life hasn't turned out how they thought it would. The only one who achieved their childhood dream is Levi Banes, who's now a Spotify-famous country music star. With the profits from his constant touring, Levi has purchased a beach house, and his idea is for everyone to spend a couple months in this house on the New Jersey shore as a "summer vacation" where they can address what's dragging them down. In the days following the dinner, one-by-one, each character shows up at the beach house, and what follows is a summer of introspection, arguments, and self-discovery.Exceptionally current, ambitiously told, and completely fearless, Beach House Burning is a return to the notion that a novel should be "word from the front" showing us how we live, while serving as a snapshot of a of a specific time for future generations.