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    The Gospel of Anarchy: A Novel
    Unavailable
    The Gospel of Anarchy: A Novel
    Unavailable
    The Gospel of Anarchy: A Novel
    Ebook220 pages3 hours

    The Gospel of Anarchy: A Novel

    By Justin Taylor

    2.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    “A feverish, fearless writer.” —Christine Schutt, author of All Souls, finalist for the 2009 Pulitzer Prize

    “The Gospel of Anarchy is a beautiful, searching and sometimes brutally funny novel. Justin Taylor writes with fierce precision and perfect balance.” —Sam Lipsyte, author of The Ask

    Following his critically acclaimed short story collection Everything Here Is the Best Thing Ever, Justin Taylor’s mesmerizing debut novel explores the eccentricities, insights, and unexpected grace found in a motley crew of off-beat anarchists, and their quest to achieve utopia in a crumbling Florida commune. In the vein of Chris Adrian, Padgett Powel, and Hunter Thompson, Taylor delivers a shrewd, cerebral, and often wickedly humorous vision of reality on every leaf of the mirthfully absurd The Gospel of Anarchy.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateFeb 8, 2011
    ISBN9780062042293
    Unavailable
    The Gospel of Anarchy: A Novel
    Author

    Justin Taylor

    Justin Taylor is the author of the story collection Everything Here Is the Best Thing Ever and the novel The Gospel of Anarchy. He lives in New York City.

    Read more from Justin Taylor

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    Reviews for The Gospel of Anarchy

    2.5/5

    22 ratings3 reviews

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    • 4/5
      I liked this book very much but did not connect with it as passionately as others have.
    • 1/5
      The Gospel of Anarchy goes from a sexist softcore porn male fantasy tale of dumpster diving Floridian anarcho-punks in Gainesville to magical realism...that centers around a cultish version of anarcho-Christianity...? After taking that turn it gets really boring. Like Jonathan Franzen or Mary McGarry Morris, the writing style is bleak, dystopic, vacant…not so much my thing...if this is a critique or depiction of the vast American suburban emptiness and alienation of sprawl, then ok but it feels sort of cheap, cliched and cynical. The characters are hopeless and don't seem fleshed out. Like, ok, if we live in a giant hamster wheel of chain stores along the interstate…we are still human right? So where is the humanity in this story? As far as dystopia goes, I like Stepford Wives, because at least there is an analysis of power happening. I don't know if the mysticism of this book really gets to anything real. When I looked up the author it seems that he is kind of a poseur who doesn't get it...like alternative rock representing the underground to the mainstream…he lives in Brooklyn and supposedly no one in Gainesville has ever heard of him but he seems to get ok reviews and know a lot of MFA-ified literary people? As much as I hate to give a book a bad review in its entirely, I guess I have to give this one a thumbs down. I really didn't like it. Another reason to seek out punks who write fiction I guess.
    • 4/5
      An unnumbered group of young people, disenchanted with the charms of consumerist conformity, make a life for themselves on the margins of society in this novel. When an aging hippie who lived with them disappears, leaving a mysterious manuscript behind, the group's charismatic center begins a pseudo-religion based on his teachings. That's the basic plot of "The Gospel of Anarchy," with which I passed a few intriguing hours of my life.I picked up "The Gospel of Anarchy" because of its intriguing title and because I'm attempting to write a novel based in a form of religious anarchy. Taylor's version is good but not great. I enjoyed the novel's vivid descriptions and decent plotting. The story is quite short. At times, the writing swerves towards purple prose when a faded blue would have sufficed, and the characters fail to develop meaningfully enough for me.The material in the book which represents the "gospel" is probably the most compelling. The ending fizzles out, but I think this is an appropriate symbolic choice, echoing the endings of many such affinity groups.I appreciated the imagination that went into creating the religion and felt like the narrative respected the religious, the non-religious, and the inventively religious alike. Those who enjoy edgy perspectives on faith would probably enjoy this novel. It actually concerns the political/lifestyle philosophy of anarchy, which is refreshing. More detail in the characters and a deeper web of characters would have kept me more engaged in the book, I think, but overall it is a good read, and I would be tempted to purchase more books by the author.