Spaceman Blues: A Love Song Book

Sort of Neverwhere meets Men in Black, if that can be believed. Wendell's lover Manuel disappears, and rather than grieve and let go, Wendell decides to dedicate himself to finding him, even if it means giving up everything he is and traveling deep into New York City's underworld, a city beneath the city populated by the forgotten and the dispossessed. Oh, and also, there are some aliens.

There was a lot I liked about this book. Slattery achieves some very moving moments, moments that say a ton about the relationships between people and about how hard'but also how important'it is to make a connection. Unfortunately, pretty much all of these moments happen between minor characters. I never felt like I really had enough of a handle on Wendell to feel the full weight of his transformation and his journey. Part of this, I think, is because I found Slattery's prose style a little difficult; he employs lots of long, loopy, dream-like sentences, and they can be a bit hard to follow. I also found the red-herring of Manuel's past and personality very frustrating; he's not, in the end, very important to the story at all, but it feels a little bait-and-switch to me, this holy grail at the end of the quest that not only isn't holy, but is manufactured by Dixie Cup. Maybe if Slattery had sold the ending better, or even just differently. Still: a lot about this book is memorable and strange and beautiful, and it says some interesting things about immigrants in America, and about love. It also has a pair of buddy-cops named Trout and Salmon. So much potential! Hopefully I'll be able to return to it in a few more years and get more out of it.