Rainsong in sawdust

Matthew Eric Wharton
Wed, 29 Apr 2026 13:46:13 PDT

The fabric of this novel arises from the burnt pages of Gogol's Dead Souls. It explores the metaphor of water, in all its forms, as life. Joe Hennessy is a high school dropout working construction in Lake Tahoe. Catholic shame spins his mind into Mandelbrot sets of unrealizable responsibilities toward his family. A crisis occurs when his sister forces him to start over in a new place. We hear the hush of snow, the smoothness of water and the approach of the saw blade.