Insanely outdated review: Stone Arabia.
If you’re thinking, jeez, didn’t this come out, like, last year? You are correct. Daddy’s been busy.
I’ve been looking forward to reading Dana Spiotta’s Stone Arabia. The story surrounds a sister looking for a missing brother, Nik. Nik is a Robert Pollard/Jandek sort of recluse who records his own albums for no audience, but also writes “The Chronicles,” a fictitious history of his bands with fake record reviews, interviews, obituaries, album art and the like.
Stone Arabia at once delivered higher and failed to meet expectations in surprising ways. “The Chronicles” were not explored to their biggest possibilities, leaving much of the documentation to the readers’ imagination. However, The book’s focus on middle-agedom is powerfully touching. Stone Arabia is strongest when its protagonist, Denise, is scraping at the pain, confusion and disappointment of being 40-something.
There are some other interesting rabbit holes dealing with dementia, Denise’s daughter filming a Nik-focused documentary and the oddly soothing oversaturation of daily media atrocities. Stone Arabia was worth the wait, but for dazzlingly different ways than expected.
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