Welcome to another installment of If My Book, the Monkeybicycle feature in which authors shed light on their recently released books by comparing them to weird things. This week Michael Konik writes about Year 14, his novel out from Barrelhouse Books.
If Year 14 had been published in 1517, very few people would have been able to read it. But those that could would hammer it page by page to doors of churches.
If Year 14 had been published in 1750, Voltaire would have read it as a nicely disguised takedown of Catholicism.
If Year 14 had been published in 1939, it would have been burned in Berlin.
If Year 14 had been published in 1954, the question of its patriotism would have been the subject of a Congressional inquiry.
If Year 14 had been published in 1989, a fatwa would have been declared against it by people who had not yet had the pleasure of reading it.
If Year 14 had been published in 2008, the idea that the United States could become a fascist idiocracy helmed by a casino mogul would have seemed as absurd as a book about a fictional nation where they start over in Year 1. And people would be even less interested in reading it than they are now.
If Year 14 were from the canon of Roald Dahl, it would be entitled Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
If my book were a
Haiku, it would be shorter
Than Barrelhouse wants
If Year 14 were a work of transcendent beauty and spiritual power, fun public relations opportunities like this one would be entirely unnecessary. So let us give thanks that this apparently is not the case. Nonetheless, I believe that if enough people read Year 14 good things will happen to them and to the world.
Michael Konik is the author of many books of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. He lives in Los Angeles, where he serves as poet laureate of Vista Street Community Library and tends an organic vegetable garden. Find out more at michaelkonik.com or follow him on Twitter at @michaelkonik.
