Charlie Martens is a little kid when his parents are killed in an accidental explosion. The sudden loss throws his young life on a pinball trajectory. He stays with a variety of far-flung relatives for limited periods of time until he is finally emancipated at age 17. Now in his late 20s, Charlie is back for a second stab at Glendale Community College near Phoenix, Ariz. There he has fallen in love with Olivia Simmons, a younger pretty woman he met in a creative writing class. She is from London, and her student visa is soon to expire. Olivia is realistic about her inevitable return home and announces that they should discontinue their tenuous relationship. Clearly, Olivia never reciprocated the depth of Charlie’s affection and longing. As portrayed in Jamie Clarke’s novel “Vernon Downs,” it will be yet another chapter in Charlie’s life, one permeated by impermanence and broken connections.
Olivia’s favorite writer is the notorious Vernon Downs, who is scheduled to come to Phoenix to promote his latest novel. The book has ignited considerable outrage “because of the graphic torture and murder committed by the main character.” Only vaguely aware of this author, Charlie determines to learn as much as he can about Downs and then try to score an interview. As soon as he can secure a date and location, Charlie will invite Olivia along. That might make her think twice about abandoning him for England. Observing the author’s photo on a book jacket, Charlie “marked his own passing resemblance to Vernon Downs and wondered if Olivia had a type.”
As Charlie finds out about Downs, he begins to surmise that the writer is more of a dissolute club-hopping celebrity than a serious litterateur. Nonetheless, he pursues his quixotic plan to meet up with Downs when he gets to town. To his mounting chagrin, Charlie’s efforts prove fruitless. And he has made matters uncomfortably dicey for himself. In his desperation to impress Olivia, he had blurted that he had an actual interview arranged and of course she would attend. Olivia is thrilled. He is on the verge of confessing his fib when he learns that Downs has canceled his appearance. It seems the controversial penman had become increasingly intimidated by “the death threats, the organized protests, the stalker that showed up in city after city until rented bodyguards became a daily reality for the author.”
Author Clarke and his wife own a bookstore, Newtonville Books, just outside Boston. They host readings, a book club, writing workshops open to all, and they carry an array of films inspired by books. Clarke has edited anthologies and is the founding editor of the literary magazine Post Road. His current novel is a roman à clef of Clarke’s experiences with the writer Bret Easton Ellis who is the model for the fictional Downs. Clarke recently stated: “As I got older, I started to think about the idea of a famous writer as a mentor to a wannabe and how every protégé/fan is one part assassin.”
In the novel, Charlie becomes determined to find Downs. Bereft of adequate cash, he acquires a batch of credit cards by mail and sets out on his uncertain quest. His first stop is Camden College in bucolic Vermont. “Vernon Downs was by far one of the most successful writers in Camden’s history, but his name was whispered in the halls with a mix of shame and admiration.” At Camden, Charlie manages to inveigle a phone number for Downs from an unsuspecting woman in the alumni office. Charlie heads for New York City and is immediately cowed by the high cost of living. He may have to “ride that subway all night with the other homeless if it should come to that.”
After a string of comical mishaps, a kindly bartender tells Charlie, who has confessed to the barman that he is an aspiring writer, to mail some of his work to Derwin MacDonald, a gentleman who owns the obscure Obelisk Press. Instead Charlie visits MacDonald in person. After an engaging conversation, the old man allows Charlie to move into a tiny apartment atop the publishing house. From this slim purchase within the sprawling cityscape, Charlie will before long find himself plunked in the middle of the tilt-awhirl life like that of Downs — a reckless life of booze, drugs, artistic ambitions and pretensions. His resemblance to Downs precipitates a funhouse mirror world where Charlie indulges in subterfuge and the temptations brought by fanatical adulation.
As this improbable journey unwinds, Downs admits to Charlie that one’s authentic self can easily get lost in the welter of constant superficial distractions the glittering world of celebrity can bestow.
He speaks of “the ways his self-impersonation had gone astray, how he had allowed what was said about him to inform his perception of himself, how he had acted his way through life accordingly.” Downs is deeply aware of having fallen victim to his own myth: “Unfortunately for me, I’m addicted to the fictional me.”
This is a witty and oftentimes funny story wherein elements of sincerity and cynicism, desperation and illusion combine nicely to make a touching and entertaining tale.
Book Review - Vernon Downs: A Novel by Jaime Clarke