spuytenduyvil

The Ghosts of Bohemian Grove—funny, unapologetically weird—works on multiple levels: as satire, California gothic, and surrealistic odyssey. The story would be compelling and hilarious even without Reagan, Nixon, and Goldwater, but the presence of these ghosts transports Allardice’s novel into a literary netherworld that is always captivating and every once in a while genuinely spooky. This tale of a young artist lost in the woods of America’s political subconscious is above all a pleasure to read, at times recalling satirists like Vonnegut and Heller while staking out entirely new territory.

 

                           Jesse Michaels,

                           author of Whispering Bodies