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Larry was punching one of his actors in the ear, blood flowing freely from his own split lip all over again, and he was quickly realizing that you never pick a fight with a naked man. Naked people fight harder. Especially if they're hard. Then they're damn near invincible.
The state of being between wakefulness and sleep is called hypnagogia. It's not a lucid dream. You're aware that you're dreaming/falling asleep, but you can't control the flow of images your brain is bombarding you with. I remember seeing images of a Kiss-themed hockey team while drifting into hypnagogia. No idea if it was supposed to mean anything. David James Keaton's mammoth of a first novel THE LAST PROJECTOR is the closest you can get to a hypnagogic state while being fully awake and reading. You'll pinch yourself and wonder if you're not just about to fall asleep and dreaming that you're reading this endless labyrinth of kaleidoscopic stories. It's a novel that you'll either love or hate, but that'll scan the depths of your soul and tell you what kind of reader you really are.
The crux of THE LAST PROJECTOR's narrative revolves around Larry, a porno movies director who used to be a paramedic named Jack and who plays a paramedic named Jack in a ''real movie'' he's shooting. Jack changed his identity after he was accused of rape by a car crash victim named Jacki, a moment in his life he's obsessed with revisiting. There are Billy and Bully, having adventures in parallel of the main storyline, too. There are dogs ceaselessly walking around, going from one narrative to the other and (I think) pointing in the direction where you're supposed to look. There are probably a million other details that I should mention here, but I gave up trying to identify what detail is relevant and what detail David James Keaton put is just to fuck with me about halfway through the novel.
Early reviews of THE LAST PROJECTOR all said the same thing: it's difficult. It's such a difficult and challenging novel. Well, colour me intrigued. You want to know what's so challenging about THE LAST PROJECTOR, I'll tell you. In more classic mysteries, the name of the game is untold motives and past relationship. From the first page, you know what to look for. In THE LAST PROJECTOR, you don't. It's a novel with it's own, schizoid logic and clues and hints are hidden within the fabric of reality itself. What's playing on television, what the dog is doing, actions that seem trivial, they all matter. It's refreshing and playful and yet thoroughly exhausting. It's cliché to call something Lynchian, but there are elements of a Lynchian logic yet the story resembles more of the screenplay of a reckless John Carpenter movie. I'd call THE LAST PROJECTOR a psychedelic mystery.
The crux of THE LAST PROJECTOR's narrative revolves around Larry, a porno movies director who used to be a paramedic named Jack and who plays a paramedic named Jack in a ''real movie'' he's shooting. Jack changed his identity after he was accused of rape by a car crash victim named Jacki, a moment in his life he's obsessed with revisiting. There are Billy and Bully, having adventures in parallel of the main storyline, too. There are dogs ceaselessly walking around, going from one narrative to the other and (I think) pointing in the direction where you're supposed to look. There are probably a million other details that I should mention here, but I gave up trying to identify what detail is relevant and what detail David James Keaton put is just to fuck with me about halfway through the novel.
Early reviews of THE LAST PROJECTOR all said the same thing: it's difficult. It's such a difficult and challenging novel. Well, colour me intrigued. You want to know what's so challenging about THE LAST PROJECTOR, I'll tell you. In more classic mysteries, the name of the game is untold motives and past relationship. From the first page, you know what to look for. In THE LAST PROJECTOR, you don't. It's a novel with it's own, schizoid logic and clues and hints are hidden within the fabric of reality itself. What's playing on television, what the dog is doing, actions that seem trivial, they all matter. It's refreshing and playful and yet thoroughly exhausting. It's cliché to call something Lynchian, but there are elements of a Lynchian logic yet the story resembles more of the screenplay of a reckless John Carpenter movie. I'd call THE LAST PROJECTOR a psychedelic mystery.
''How come people in movies always cough a lot after they get their asses kicked real bad?'' Billy asked her.''You don't give someone a cold when you punch them in the face.''
''I think you're used to too much WWF bullshit. You neeed someone to tap out to know it's over.''
''No, I just...''
''Tap tap tap!'' she snapped, rapidly slapping his chest like a wrestling mat.''
''...just when I got my ass kicked three years ago, I just crawled under a car.''
So much is going to be said about THE LAST PROJECTOR's crowded and crooked story structure that people are going to forget about other aspects of the novel that I thought were very interesting. For example, David James Keaton discussed rape in contemporary crime fiction on Booked podcast, confessing that he was irked that it was always used the same way, as a plot device for vengeance stories. Given that rape isn't a sacrosanct subject for you, THE LAST PROJECTOR offers a fun alternative to discussing that horrible crime in fiction : a delicious clusterfuck of finger pointing and blurred memories that tie in beautifully into the already blurry narrative created by David James Keaton. THE LAST PROJECTOR looks past the abject nature of rape and deals with the repercussions and the people involved without ever not taking it seriously. I thought it was another refeshing aspect. A very ''Keatonian'' view, but not necessarily disrespectful.
Maybe THE LAST PROJECTOR is going to become a cult hit, but I unfortunately doubt that it'll ever break into mainstream success. Not all that many readers like to push themselves while reading fiction and in order to enjoy THE LAST PROJECTOR, you'll actually have to work. It's a novel that's best enjoyed in a quiet space, with a pen and notepad, and preferrably a couple of days ahead of you. I guess you could say it's a literary event in itself because it's going to require you to play along and go much further than the act of reading. I am not sure what fate lies ahead for THE LAST PROJECTOR, but I can only applaud Broken River Books for taking a leap of faith on such a brazen novel. Try at your own risk. It's not going to leave you indifferent. It's the only thing about THE LAST PROJECTOR that I'm 100% sure of.