“Reality is a story we tell ourselves. Change the story and you change reality.”
Middle-aged Funboy is God. Claimed by many, he suffers an identity disorder and self-medicates with spirits, pills and cheeseburgers. Alone in a cheap room he reflects on a favorite incarnation, or creation, Gonzo Jack, who once bent the rules of existence. Close to a major hallucination, Funboy resurrects Jack and sends him to find reality, which has taken a vacation to Absurdia. When a bear named Crystal discovers a body, she blames Funboy and orders him to return Jack to life. But, Jack has already left on his journey.
Jack emerges in Absurdia, a beach town, with much to learn. He looks for, but consistently misinterprets, reality. Pursued by the status quo, Jack must overcome inherited addictions and learn to survive, or evolve, even as the status quo tries to kill him. If Jack can find reality then the world will continue on its happy, mundane path. If Jack can find a more intimate, ultimate reality then life as he knows it will come to a satisfying end. If the body that Crystal finds is not Jack, it may be Funboy. If God is dead…
In Absurdia charts the seeker’s journey. Intellectually and artistically provocative, it tries to capture ephemera, knowing life is a pastiche with fragile connections.
Author’s Bio: Glenn Whalan is a nondualist with an overactive imagination. His life is absurd. He may think he’s found an answer to life’s meaning but his reality, like yours, is entirely and fantastically subjective. ‘In Absurdia’ is his first novel.