I, Judas

With the claustrophobic air of a mosh pit, Reich's experimental debut novel tells the story of Judas and his betrayal of Jesus Christ, with Judas narrating from his current seat in Dante's Hell. Reich skewers Christian orthodoxy (Judas rapes Mary Magdalene), and folds altered Biblical scenes into 19th and 20th century events, including Custer's last stand and JFK's autopsy. In the novel's surrealist non-chronology, historical characters segue into personalities familiar from the present%E2%80%94Herod's daughter becomes a punk-rock-loving teenager abused by her father. The organizing principle seems to be decadence, namely its fascination with death and suicide, which Reich uses as a lazy excuse to make literary and historical allusions which include John the Baptist, Sylvia Plath, and Bob Dylan. Dense with adjectives, adverbs, and metaphors that make little sense, the prose strains for an edgy feel: "With my hair in copper coils, my skull is the pornography of electricians, my features indistinct as stone in slow weather." Though clearly intended as a dark account about the death drive, moments of painful earnestness ("We are intoxicated by symbolic structures.") cause the novel to veer into self-parody. Despite its pretentiousness, it may appeal to disaffected youths between the ages of 13 and 17 who feel that the world just doesn't understand. (Oct.)