Irish writer Donovan’s confounding third novel (after Julius Winsome
) revolves around the overmedication of America, but fails to rise above a convoluted satire. Sunless—the novel’s self-named narrator—recounts the crumbling of his life in Salt Lake City. After Sunless’s baby brother is stillborn, his mother turns to prescription drugs. Later, his father is diagnosed with a terminal lung disease and is turned away from a clinical trial at Pharmalak (the pharmaceutical “castle” in Park City) for not having health insurance, leaving Sunless to watch his father slowly succumb to the “vines” that have invaded his chest. Spiraling down into his own addictions—first stealing pills from his mother’s stash and later learning to cook crystal meth—Sunless drifts through life in a drug-induced haze before finding himself back at Pharmalak under the care of the mysterious Dr. Fargoon, who is conducting a test of wonder drug Elevax. Donovan’s narrative minimalism is at odds with the myriad topics he addresses—drug culture in America; the fluid boundaries between life, death, the past and the present; Mormonism; the pharmaceutical industry; health insurance conglomerates—and the narrative thread can get lost in the jumble. This novel was well-received in the U.K., but U.S. readers may find it too simplistic. (Oct.)
