Rating: 3 stars
David is a college drop-out, addicted to computer porn and toiling away in a dead-end job. Having just been reprimanded for showing some compassion to an elderly window on the phone, David has decided to add “unemployed” to his list of personal adjectives.
Putting an end to his porn issue by ejaculating on his laptop, then submerging it in a tub of water, David sets off to aimlessly walk the streets of his predominately-collegiate Gainesville town. Walking down the alley behind one of the oft-used campus eateries, David happens upon Thomas, a childhood friend from back home, shoulder deep in a dumpster; as a very dirty young girl named Liz serves as the look out.
Introductions are made and David is invited back to their house to partake in their dumpster-provided feast and meet the rest of the crew. Upon entering the abode known as Fishgut, David is introduced to a room full of hippies, punks and social drop outs communing in harmonious anarchy as they live and love freely—stealing only what they need.
Given a short tour of the abode, David hears a bit of history about the house and shown the tent that still stands in memoriam to their missing house leader, Parker, who has disappeared; but is expected—however speculative the assumption—to return at any time. That night, after free booze and a bit of recreational drugs, David is taken into the bed of Liz and her girlfriend Katy; where, ironically, life begins to imitate art—almost as if his computerized obsession had simply been a dress rehearsal.
Of everyone in the house, Katy idolized Parker the most and based on him, she embraces her own style of faith and religion—Christianarchy—which has been proclaimed the house religion. After finding one of Parker’s hidden notebooks, a sign—at least to Katy—of Parker’s imminent return.
The Gospel of Anarchy reads like a modern day Waiting for Godot. With David by her side, Katy prepares for Parker’s return, just as Vladimir and Estragon did, without any reason or forewarning that the event would actually occur. Katy’s once inspiring faith begins to consume her, as her romanticism of Parker becomes idolatrous; deftly illustrating how taking things too literal or too far can distort their true meaning and intent.
Justin Taylor’s depiction of twenty-something burnouts, molted of their previous bourgeoisie lifestyle, who are attempting to ascend to some epiphanic-enlighten level of being is both captivating and alarming. Taylor has brilliantly blurred the line between making an informed life choice and living a delusion.
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Paperback: 256 pages
Publisher: Harper Perennial; Original edition (February 8, 2011)
ISBN-13: 978-0061881824