Another reviewer said it better but yes: this is absolutely some Where the Red Fern Grows but for crazy kids (or former crazy kids? unclear on how time factors into the being a crazy kid tbh) shit. Thank you, as ever, Mr. Darnielle. I'm 26 right now and was looking through my to-read list trying to pick a book a few days ago because I needed something, right now, about being unhinged, and this. This was a pretty good pick on my part, tbh. Good timing.
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I know from interviews and comments he's made at book signings I've been at that at least some of the inspiration for this book is a particular patient John Darnielle worked with in an in-patient facility. I wish I had this at the time I met him so I could have had it signed along with his other novels.
The entire book is set up as a series of journal entries. The first half by a young man in an in-patient mental health treatment facility who is being forced to journal as a part of ongoing therapy. Rather than write directly about his thoughts and feelings, he tries to rebel by writing about his favourite album, Masters of Reality by Black Sabbath, which is among the tapes they took from him when he was committed. This of course results in far more insight into his thoughts than he intends. The second half picks up almost ten years later, eight years since he was discharged on his eighteenth birthday. The man has found his old journal and tapes while moving after a breakup, and begins writing again, ostensibly as letters he intends to send to the therapist that first made him write in the journal, about what happened in his life, and the continuing influence of Masters of Reality on him.
Speaking as someone (a teacher) who regularly reads what teenagers write, I can say with some authority that during the first half John Darnielle does an above fair approximation of writing like a teenager. The short declarative sentences, the repetition of language, some of the themes and conceits...it verisimilitude and consequently the suspension of disbelief that these are the musings of a possibly troubled teenager.
For those who have read Wolf in White Van, the second half will feel very familiar. I can readily see how this was a warmup for that most excellent exercise in literary fiction. The voice is and tone are very similar, and some of the imagery during this inner journey, this exploration of self and history by the narrator, are clearly leading up to that.
Some particular one liners and thoughts that popped out from this half for me, "As if all the messages were useless, and all the messengers knew it...". And perhaps more as it applies to the practice of mental health and how to approach clients, something which I know John Darnielle is intimately familiar with, "...how it spoke to me where I was instead of trying to tell me where I was supposed to go." ( )

When I started listening to the Mountain Goats, I never expected that it would lead to me appreciating Black Sabbath. But, here we are. ( )

An interesting story, but I really, really wanted him to dissect the record rather than write a story with the record woven through it. ( )

It was fine. I am a fan of The Mountain Goats and I read wolf in a white van. Nothing amazing here but it did give me a new appreciation for Black Sabbath. After Forever is the greatest Christian rock song of all time. ( )