Absent a Reckoning

Amidst the warm sun and cleansing breeze of Southern California, Biron is finally living the life that he’s always dreamed of having. He revels in the freedom of shirtless travel atop his skateboard and enjoys encounters with beautiful women whom he seduces with a veneer of calculated and well-practiced odes to pop culture. But when he meets a woman whose outsized personality and wit threaten to invade his carefully manufactured persona, the walls guarding his inner-self begin to crumble. Is Biron simply a construct of the books he’s read, the movies he’s seen, and the music he’s listened to, or is his psychology much more complicated and uncomfortably familiar. As their encounter moves through the day and into the night, Biron’s different faces begin to surface and glimpses of his past and his true nature reveal themselves. But which face is real? Is it the face of confidence and introspection which he displays with casual familiarity, or is it the face of easy violence and carnal sexuality which he seems to wear with such righteous joy. Before the night is over, Biron is forced to confront the demons within himself as his past and present collide and create a confrontation which only his real self can survive. "Absent a Reckoning" is a novel for readers who found a confederate in Teju Cole's "Open City," an uncomfortable alliance in John Updike's "Rabbit Run" and a lifelong companion in Cormac McCarthy's "Suttree."