ZEROVILLE

"This godforsaken stretch of Gibraltar. The cutting room in Madrid. Paris, Bombay, Tokyo, fucking Norway, wherever—it's all Hollywood, everywhere is Hollywood, the only place on the planet that's not Hollywood anymore is Hollywood."

—page 121, Zeroville by Steve Erickson

I am thoroughly enjoying Zeroville. It is ripe with many of Steve Erickson's favorite themes, which makes me happy. It is nice to be in a comfortable place, even if it is surreal and apocalyptic.

First, the requisite relational problems between parent and child are present. Soledad Palladin, our protagonist Vikar's love interest, is not a very good mother to her preteen daughter Zazi. That is primarily due to Soledad's narcissism and neglect. Vikar's outrage at Soledad seems justified. However, Erickson also indicts God. He challenges a God who would sacrifice his own child, as well as foster the faith that would cause Abraham to do the be willing to do the same to his son Isaac. And, Vikar has an obviously strained relationship with his own father. All of this reminds me that relationships are messy.

Second, the novel is a place for the collision of the "real" and "fictional" worlds. We have the kidnapping of Charles Foster Kane's granddaughter! We have Vikar, Soledad, and Dotty working on or in actual films! We have Vikar meeting actual actors, directors, and producers! A special prize is created at the Cannes Film Festival for Vikar's editing work! All of the above is delivered absent irony. It is just the way the world(s) of Erickson's fiction work(s).

Third, the prostitutes are in place. They creep onto the streets of Madrid as Generalissimo Franco is dying. They are mentioned after Vikar and Soledad finally have sex in New York City. Just as the "memory hotels" of The Sea Came in at Midnight and the "holy prostitutes" of Our Ecstatic Days are signifiers of changes that are occurring or about to occur, the whores of Zeroville are signs of impending change. I haven't quite figured out their exact role yet, but I am sure that it is there.

Fourth, Erickson loves to play with time and place. The settings of his novels are cosmopolitan, even as they are grounded in one prime locale, in this case Los Angeles. But, that still allows for side trips to New York, Madrid, and Cannes so far, as well as flashbacks to fictional Mather Divinity School's architecture program in Pennsylvania. And, time is fluid. Midway through the novel everything is "reset to zero." The chapters, which have been numerically increasing, begin to decrease in numbering. Are they replays or reformulations of the previous chapters? Does ascendant chapter 226 have something in common with descendant chapter 226? Not that I can surmise, but that is probably due to everything being "reset."

I am slightly more than halfway through this novel and enjoying every minute of it, and, if I wish that it didn't end, then I can simply "reset" the novel when I reach the conclusion and begin again. It is something that Vikar would understand.