cover image THE TIME OF NEW WEATHER

THE TIME OF NEW WEATHER

Sean Murphy, . . Delta, $13 (336pp) ISBN 978-0-553-38245-7

Murphy (Hope Valley Hubcap King , etc.) takes a dark, sardonic look into an apocalyptic future in his latest novel, a funny but flawed narrative about a young man who battles the totalitarian forces of the business world. Buddy LeBlanc was born in the Louisiana bayou, where magnetic storms disrupt the effects of gravity and force people to anchor themselves to the earth with Velcro. As he grows up, things only get stranger, and matters come to a head when a sprawling conglomerate announces that it has bought out the bankrupt U.S. government. Totalitarian changes begin immediately, forcing Buddy—who has a gift for performing minor miracles and has been touring with the circus—to join up with his brilliant love interest, journalist Rhonda Jefferson, and a band of ragtag malcontents know as the Dreamers to organize epic protests. Murphy's political and social satire consistently hits its targets, but his storytelling is often disorganized and chaotic—he introduces extraneous characters and convoluted, unnecessary subplots at a frenzied pace and gets bogged down in some lackluster side plots involving Buddy's family. This could have been a brilliant novel with more narrative focus, but the lack of a solid story line makes it more of a cult curio. Agent, Peter Rubie. (Dec. 28)