Wichita
-
- $13.99
-
- $13.99
Publisher Description
"A wild rumpus of a book . . . an exuberant American tale of brothers wrestling demons and each other on opposite poles of their grab bag of a family" (PANK Magazine).
Lewis Chopik has just graduated from Columbia University. Having been dumped by his girlfriend and in flight from the pressures exerted by his ambitious professor father, Lewis returns to Wichita in search of respite at the home of his New-Ager mother, Abby. But when Abby picks Lewis up from the airport, she reveals that she's starting a storm-chasing business and indulging a polyamorous lifestyle. Another unexpected arrival is Seth, Lewis's bipolar younger brother, who shows off a new tattoo on his chest: In Loving Memory of Seth Chopik. Things begin to resemble the land of Oz more than Wichita when Lewis, while minding Seth, joins Abby in the Flint Hills on a storm-chase with her first client.
"[An] honest and raw look at brotherhood and what it means to rediscover your family." —O, The Oprah Magazine
"The world of Wichita is rich, subtle, and funny, . . . This is a truly striking novel."—Sam Lipsyte, New York Times–bestselling author
"Wichita is a novel about expectations and outcomes, about what is open and what is veiled. Its emotional terrain is touching and vast." —The New York Times Book Review
"Ziolkowski's humor and trenchant observations make for startlingly gorgeous (and often hilarious) prose even in the midst of emergencies." —Interview Magazine
"[A] sparkling debut . . . There's never a dull moment in a novel which fires us up with snappy and often very funny dialogue." —Kirkus Reviews
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Guggenheim fellow Ziolkowski's first serious jump from poetry to fiction tells the story of Lewis, a recent graduate returning from the Ivy League to his hometown of Wichita, Kans. An offhand, remote tone mirrors his aimless detachment after he deliberately turns his back on the academic life his father and grandparents wanted for him and moves back into his mother's house. Lewis's mother, Abby, is a New Ager starting a business chaperoning storm-chasing tourists. She's also in a polyamorous experiment, and her house is full of offbeat characters, including an ageing hippie who is making psychedelic drugs. The novel ambles along affably enough while Lewis takes stock of his problems: the futility of trying to please his father; his younger, bipolar brother Seth, who seems on the brink of a breakdown; and the ex-girlfriend he still loves taking up with his nemesis, a rich, entitled Rhodes scholar. Throughout, Seth's manic behavior amps up, Lewis plans his escape from Kansas, and Abby continues her alternative lifestyle alongside her two sons, until a true storm sweeps through, forcing the three of them to face the tensions they've been avoiding. Solidly captivating, and subtly twisted.
