Out of What Chaos

An Oregon musician pursues his dreams but eventually must choose between his celebrity lifestyle and the woman he loves.

Set on the West Coast during George W. Bush’s first term, Out of What Chaos showcases the escapades of Rex and The Brains as they settle into the Portland rock scene, record their first album, and tour from Vancouver to LA behind their chart-topping single, “F U. I Just Want To Get My Rocks Off.”

The boys party on, finding their way amidst the frenzied panorama of twenty-first century America. The country embraces them in all its crazy glory, from witches to priests, from groupies to politicians, from drug dealers to porno stars and college professors.

As the band’s fame grows, tragedy strikes, and Freddie finds himself torn between his rock-and-roll lifestyle and his girlfriend whose claim on his heart continues to grow. In the end, the worlds of love and celebrity collide, and Freddie must make a choice.

“What one would expect if Walker Percy wrote about a cynical rock musician who converts to Catholicism, and then Nabokov added some of his verbal pyrotechnics, and then Buster Keaton and the Marquis de Sade and Lionel Trilling inserted a few extra passages. It is a loving and yet appalled description of the underground music scene in the Pacific Northwest. And it is a convincing representation of someone very, very smart.” —Matt Greenfield, The Valve

“In smart, wiry prose, Lee Oser has created a witty Bildungsroman set in the world of rockers in the Northwest. In a world where the “choices” offered are life-denying or trivial, Oser negotiates a set of alternatives for his characters-and his readers.” —James Najarian, Associate Professor, Boston College

"Well-versed in the lifestyle, Lee Oser has crafted a hedonistically spiritual rock ‘n’ roll morality play; one filled with characters culled from his own musical experience. Freddie Fontane is the new Holden Caulfield for the wi-fi generation—registering his every thought and impression upon the quickly turned page. In a world of transient American Idols, in relentless pursuit of their Warholian fifteen minutes, Freddie Fontane is the unfailing pragmatist, searching for truth in a world of pretense and artifice.” —S. P. Clarke, Two Louies