Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (June 15, 2017)
BOOKS BY RICK LEVIN ONE HELL OF A ROAD TRIP A high schooler’s life takes a serious detour in Eugene author J.C. Geiger’s Wildman he premise is strictly film noir: Returning from a road trip to Se- attle, a high school valedictorian from Oregon — an all-Ameri- can kid, first-chair trumpet player, a bit tightly wound but, you know, going places — suddenly breaks down in rural Washing- ton, his ’93 Buick reduced to a hunk of immobile metal. Now, instead of making it home to a graduation party where he plans on losing his virginity with his longtime girlfriend, Lance Hen- dricks is stranded in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by a small- town cast of drinkers, dreamers and deadbeats. He checks into a motel. He witnesses a car wreck and saves a life. And in the space of a few days, Lance is plunged into something so unfamiliar that he is forced to confront, and perhaps alter forever, the trajectory of his buttoned-up middle-class life. This, then, is the trajectory of Wildman, the excellent debut novel by Eugene author Jeff Geiger (writing as J.C. Geiger). It is a coming- of-age story, indeed, but it reads with all the compulsive curiosity of a crime thriller, and the suspense is distinctly existential and romantic. The novel is propulsive in a way that is un-put-downable, and its nat- uralism and immediacy hide depths of feeling that surge just below the surface. Geiger is, for lack of a better term, an action writer. Wildman is driven along, blow-by-blow, on the strength of its narrative, and the world is rendered in all its physicality as a very real place occupied by very real bodies in motion and at rest. As Lance is pulled along, seemingly helplessly at first, by the forces of fate, the book itself gathers a breathless quality — a fleetness that somehow enhances the human drama that sizzles through the pages. So, yes, there’s action aplenty, in every sense of the word, but it would be a mistake to peg Wildman as merely a rippin’ good adventure yarn. Woven seamlessly into the solid architec- ture of Geiger’s writing is a rare and poetic tenderness of feeling; his characters are not mere stand-ins for types but fully realized beings, containing hidden universes of hurt, love and compassion that burst forth unexpectedly in moments of painful truth. At the core of Wildman is the romantic tension that develops between Lance and Da- T CLASSIFIEDS BULLETIN BOARD Announcements DAWN of TRUTH & TRANSFORMATION Envision a World of Peace & JUSTICE Share-International.org SHARE H O P E Appliances GE SUPER HEAVY DUTY WASHING MACHINE , large capacity, excellent condition. $125.00 REGAL SUPER RAPID ROTISSERIE for Roasts & Poultry, New. $40 Jeff 541-653-2088 Lawn & Garden Pets GREENHILL HUMANE SOCIETY Everybody Deserves a Good Home. Open Fr-Tu 11a-6p, closed We/Th 88530 Green Hill Rd 541-689- 1503 and 1st Avenue Shelter open Tu-Fr 10a-6p & Sa 10a-5:30p, closed Su/Mo 3970 W. 1st Ave 541-844-1777. green-hill.org See our Pet of the Week! PLANNING YOUR NEXT HERB GARDEN? One of the allowed exemptions in Oregon’s Water Code for irrigating commercial marijuana crops is rainwater harvesting. We have 3000 gallon polyethylene water storage tanks in stock and local delivery is avail- able. Deiss Feed & Seed, 5590 West 11th. Eugene (541) 343-5007 SHELTER ANIMAL RESOURCE ALLIANCE S.A.R.A.’s Treasures Gift & Thrift Shop. Volunteer, Donate, Shop, ADOPT! 871 River Road, Open Daily 10am-6pm. 541-607-8892 sarastreasures.org LOOK FOR THIS WEEK’S RESCUED CAT . Adoption/Family Services EMPLOY MENT Help Wanted $DANCERS$ Tired of your current club! SWEET ILLUSIONS has day & night shifts available. No experience, can train. Excellent tips! 541-852-8625 or 541-517- 7196 THE HOTTEST CLUB IN LANE COUNTY! first. Living expenses, housing, medical, and continued support afterwards. Choose adoptive family of your choice. Call 24/7. 877-362- 2401 FOR SALE Building Materials ALASKAN YELLOW CEDAR mill leftovers and dimension. Also WRC and DF for sale. Use in fencing, decking, woodworking. Also 1’-3’ pallets of clear mill trim ends. Use in planter boxes, small decks, landscape timbers, arbors and more. Call Tom for appointment 541-517-7432 To place a classified ad: CALL 541.484.0519 EMAIL classy@eugeneweekly.com WEB classifieds.eugeneweekly.com Acupuncture RELIEVE STRESS & PAIN AFFORDABLY Wise Turtle Acupuncture offers community acu- puncture Sliding scale $15-35. 500 Main Suite C1, Spfd 541-731-1466 WiseTurtleAcupuncture.com Health & Nutrition WANT TO Insurance GROW UNINSURED? WE CAN HELP! Enrollment for OHP (Oregon Health Plan) is open year- round. For more information, Call Planned Parenthood at 541-543-5484. Wellness HEMP CBD PRODUCTS now in stock at Kickit WHITE BIRD DENTAL CLINIC 1400 Mill St. (up to 4 lines, 160 characters) for 2 weeks. Briefly list your skills/experience & contact info. Email to: office@eugeneweekly.com or call 541-484-0519 Career Training ADDICTIONS COUNSELOR TRAINING PROGRAM CALENDAR addiction treatment. Get help! It is time to take your life back! Call Now: 855-732-4139 (AAN CAN) LANDSCAPE MAINTENANCE LOST YOUR JOB? Place a free line ad here EVENTS MAKE THE CALL TO START GETTING CLEAN TODAY . Free 24/7 Helpline for alcohol & drug Minimum wage, Ask for Dawn: 541-431-3309 SEEK ING EMPLOY MENT LINE ADS: $11/3 LINES A D D I TI O NA L L I N E S : $ 4 WELLNESS Vapors 9th and Main in Springfield. We have gummies, vape pens, oils and isolate priced affordably. Stop in and check us out Monday through Saturday 10am to 8pm and Sunday 10am to 5pm. PREGNANT? CONSIDERING ADOPTION? Call us kota, an eccentric local girl whose hidden artistic leanings reveal a soul strangled by the low ambitions and stillborn dreams of her peers. Erotic intrigue might be one of the most difficult things to render with any kind of authenticity, especially of the teenage variety, but Geiger does an incredible job of transmitting the vulnerability, fear, exhilara- tion and the messy, outsized emotions of two kids reluctantly drawn together. The individual portraits of the locals Lance gets mixed up with — an incestuous population of barflies, mechanics, kooks, fighters, saints and sinners — are equally nimble and compassionate. Geiger, to his everlasting credit, never falls back on podunk truisms or cheap caricature, but rather reveals the deep humanity of each character, the beating heart that moves him or her along. Each one is indelible and lovable, faults and all. The impact each of these characters has on Lance is like a chink in the armor of his protected existence. Throughout the book he repeats the same words over and over to himself, like a mantra against the threat of chaos: “You are valedictorian. You are the first-chair trumpet player. You have a full-ride scholarship. Miriam Seavers is in love with you.” And the more Lance gets tangled up in the everyday fears and fail- ures and hopes and strangled victories of life on the other side of the tracks, the more his suburbanite mantra sounds like a lame excuse to avoid the real world, un- til the tension becomes unbearable. Geiger captures this anxious borderland of a young man suddenly plunged into the real world with grace, humor and a sense of hard-won optimism. Wildman is a young adult novel, but its appeal is universal. Reading it, I was plunged back into recollections of my own teenage years, with their heightened and slightly scary sense of possibility, but I was also confronted with the everyday static we all face in life — and how fear of the unknown pushes against our deepest desires for change. Geiger’s novel gives full voice to the risks, pitfalls and rewards of becoming who we truly are. In this sense, Wildman is as much about becoming an artist as it is about becoming an adult, a creator of one’s own existence. And it’s a heady, wild ride. Jeff W. Ryder YOUR BUSINESS? DC, LAc, Certifi ed Rolfer™ Rolfi ng ® Structural Integration Chiropractic • Cranial & Visceral Manipulation • Acupuncture ADVERTISE WITH THE EUGENE WEEKLY CALL US TODAY 541-484-0519 ® Physical & Energetic Approaches to Health and Transformation drjeffryder.com • 503-250-3209 Eugene. Emergency & on-going denistry for Low/No income residents of Lane County. Accepts OHP & under insured. 541-344- 8302 Medical Marijuana OMMP PATIENTS with qualifying conditions. Call Roni to check medical records/set up appointment time 541-729-3913 Serenity Lane, 52-week no cost Addiction Counselor Training Program. For more infor- mation visit www.serenitylane.org, click on Employment Opportunities, then on Serenity Lane’s Counselor Training Program Opportunities. Or call 541-284-5702. eugeneweekly.com • June 15, 2017 27
