John Darnielle, founder of the Mountain Goats, writes lyrics so meticulously crafted, so arcing and literary, that they can feel like novellas set to music. He demonstrates this in his new novel, “Universal Harvester,” a captivating exploration of the vagaries of memory and inertia in middle America. Jeremy, a clerk at the video store, is reluctantly tugged into the search for the provenance of these altered films, a quest that becomes an unhealthy obsession for the store owner. In “Universal Harvester,” Darnielle pushes the reader to challenge notions about the practice of religion, its role in our lives and the space in which we seek to commune with a higher power. Look closely enough at “Universal Harvester,” and you’ll find the same layers of meaning.

Source: Washington Post January 31, 2017 17:03 UTC