Name: Dhalgren
ISBN: 9780375706684

Samuel R. Delany

Journeying to the central United States city of Bellona, where all have fled save madmen and criminals, a poet and adventurer known only as the Kid wonders at the strange portents that appear in the city's cloud-covered sky.

Dhalgren

Edward Steel

Shea Newton

A hard book to recommend or to explain what, if anything happens over the course of 801 pages. But it was a fantastic, brutal, visceral, and disorienting read. I gave five stars, it was written in the 70's and all the post apocalyptic, punk, bizarro, etc., sci-fi that I've read before owes this book so so much. It is hard to even call it sci-fi. It seems something like stream of unstable consciousness magical realism, but that doesn't quite do it...

A young man arrives in the anarchic city of Bellona, in a near future USA. This world has two moons but could otherwise be our own. The man, known only as 'the Kid' begins to write a novel called Dhalgren that begins where it ends. Dhalgren is about the possibilites of fiction and aboout the special demands and pleasures of youth culture.