Last Orgy of the Divine Hermit

In Leyner’s exhilarating and grotesque fever dream (after Gone with the Mind), an anthropologist’s account of a night spent in the field with his filmmaker daughter is read by an optometrist’s patient on an eye exam chart while a series of lenses are tested. The text, an ethnography written by an anthropologist about the country of Chalazia (where the anthropologist traveled with his filmmaker daughter, Gaby), is framed by a lecherous academic’s introduction, in which the anthropologist is labeled a “vile human being” and Gaby “fantastic” and “super-hot.” Gaby and her father spend a night at the Bar Pulpo in the “insanely violent” capital city, where a murderous band of loan-sharking mystics called the Chalazian Mafia Faction patrol the streets. Inside, patrons perform spoken-word karaoke based on the nation’s “ur-folktale” of a drunken father who hints to his daughter that he is dying by telling her a story of a dying father talking to his daughter; the tale concludes with the father performing a danse macabre and perishing. Gaby and her father zealously act out a version of this absurdist tale, and the pathos and joy of their bond resonate despite an onslaught of zany metafictional lewdnesss. Leyner’s ludic, distorted vision will reward readers intrepid enough to gaze into the optometrist’s refractor. Agent: Amanda Urban, ICM Partners. (Jan.)