{"id":378,"date":"2011-09-08T03:25:49","date_gmt":"2011-09-08T03:25:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fullofcrow.com\/crowreviews\/?p=378"},"modified":"2011-09-08T03:25:49","modified_gmt":"2011-09-08T03:25:49","slug":"all-her-fathers-guns-james-warner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fullofcrow.com\/crowreviews\/2011\/09\/all-her-fathers-guns-james-warner\/","title":{"rendered":"“All Her Father’s Guns”, James Warner"},"content":{"rendered":"

“All Her Father’s Guns”, by James Warner. Reviewed for Full of Crow by Paul Corman-Roberts.<\/em><\/p>\n

HIJINX FOR A SAD AND DECLINING EMPIRE<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

2011, Numina Press, 190 pp.<\/p>\n

Ostensibly a madcap political caper with two narrators, James Warner\u2019s debut novel \u201cAll Her Father\u2019s Guns\u201d is in fact the story of two men who are desperately seeking to redefine the meaning of their lives in a world that is becoming more and more dominated by the females in their lives.<\/p>\n

The two characters at first glance could not be more different:\u00a0 Reid Seyton, a British expat academic about to lose his job in a bottom feeding academic program (\u201cThe Department of Theory\u201d) at the University of California, and his father-in-law Cal Lyte, a Libertarian venture capitalist who has more skeletons in his closet than a Halloween supply store.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not really much of a spoiler on my part to reveal that all of Cal\u2019s narration is in fact channeled by Reid, who over the course of the novel has found himself slowly becoming his father-in-law.\u00a0 Warner sells the transformation of Reid into his father-in-law so seamlessly the reader can easily buy into the authenticity of \u201cReid\u2019s narrative.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cI feel Cal\u2019s presence closer at hand.\u00a0 He\u2019s wherever crazy American\u2019s go<\/p>\n

when they die. So even though I had to write the even-numbered chapters of<\/p>\n

this book for him, I don\u2019t feel that I\u2019ve taken too many liberties.\u00a0 Cal sees<\/p>\n

through my eyes sometimes, and his voice takes up residence in me. Exor-<\/p>\n

cism\u2019s dangerous, because of the extreme act of identification required\u2026did<\/p>\n

I exorcise Cal, in the end, by channeling his story, or has he possessed me?\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Reid Seyton, in \u201cAll Her Father\u2019s Guns\u201d Epilogue<\/em><\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Reid hasn\u2019t fully become his father-in-law, neither as a fanatical born again Christian or as a pro-life advocate.\u00a0 But the answer to Reid\u2019s question somehow lies in the genuine bond of loss that exists between Cal and Reid which to reveal here WOULD be a spoiler. If anything, this revelation towards the end of the story encouraged me to go back and re-read many of the even numbered chapters (the odd numbered chapters are all from Reid\u2019s point of view) to get a better grasp of the character arcs.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t something a reader would normally do with a book that is, at its heart, a satire of California culture in the early part of the 21 century\u2019s first decade. It might seem a bit niche at first, but Warner has a gift for communicating the dysfunction of the crumbling American empire through the prism that is the nation\u2019s \u201cwild West\u201d ethos.<\/p>\n

It is Cal\u2019s motivations which drive so much of the novel\u2019s plot, using his resources from ill gotten venture schemes and a questionable network of gun enthusiasts in the god-forsaken reaches of the Nevada desert who combine fundamentalist religious fervor into their life model to try and destroy his ex-wife Tabytha\u2019s Congressional campaign.\u00a0 But something about his past marriage and family life haunts him, the same way Reid\u2019s loss of his father in childhood haunts him.\u00a0 But even in these somber, serious life moments, Warner finds laugh out loud moments in the spaces:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cMy grandfather, fetched from the sanatorium for the reception tried to<\/p>\n

cadge cigarettes from everyone.\u00a0 Listening to the vicar drone on, I asked<\/p>\n

myself who\u2019s going to finish the story?<\/p>\n

\u201cViorela Kescu told me once that we all live in the shadow of collapsed<\/p>\n

meta-narratives and I knew at once what she meant.\u00a0 I\u2019d never know how<\/p>\n

the Fox King found the Golden Key\u2026I\u2019d never know my father well enough to<\/p>\n

complete his story.\u201d\u00a0 –\u00a0 Reid discussing his father\u2019s funeral.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The story referenced above by Reid, the Fox King\u2019s search for the Golden Key parallels his and Cal\u2019s own search for their truth.\u00a0 And while many a man with a mid-life crisis knows this analogy all too well, the right\u2026or the entitlement men have always reserved for themselves in this quest has become obstructed by the females whom they have come to depend on for emotional and (often) financial support, while frequently taking them for granted, even those more peripheral to the story like Department of Theory rock star Cindy Wong:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Moments later I ran into Cindy Wong who was leaving the airport<\/p>\n

Bookstore, wearing a T-shirt promoting the Black Spider Weretiger Dragon<\/p>\n

Association.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey sound like people not to mess with,\u201d I said.\u00a0 \u201cWhoever they are.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cReid! What are you babbling about as usual?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cJust reading your T-shirt, sorry.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can read my T-shirt as much as you want, Reid,\u201d Cindy said. She\u2019d<\/p>\n

dyed her hair crimson, which always looks sexy on Asian women.\u00a0 \u201cHey,\u201d she<\/p>\n

said, \u201cthat color really suits you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBeige. Is that even a compliment?\u201d One of her uncanny abilities was to<\/p>\n

go through the motions of flirting with me without permitting me the slightest<\/p>\n

illusion that I was remotely in her league. She was wearing leopard print jeans,<\/p>\n

and I wondered if there was some evolutionary reason why predator-skin patterns<\/p>\n

are sexy. Do men deduce that women so attired can flay large feral cats and will<\/p>\n

therefore be good at protecting putative offspring?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Enter Lyllyan, Tabytha and Viorela Kescu, Cal\u2019s Lacanian therapist who also doubles as his lover.\u00a0 Warner draws them all in the same loving caricatures he renders the men of this story in, so they add consistency and believability to plot turns that otherwise might seem outlandish: Viorela becoming pregnant with Cal\u2019s child; Lyllyan being into Bob Marley; Tabytha taking her daughter to get an abortion\u2026and come to think of it, Tabytha functioning through anything given her predilection for self-induced disorientation.<\/p>\n

Warner\u2019s portrait excoriates the circus that has become electoral democracy in the United States, and the political models that an unchecked two-party system has given rise to, and much like a twenty first century Joseph Heller, he demonstrates that the only logical response to this state of affairs is an equally unchecked absurdism, since these types of politics tend to be a reflection of the same mind sets that views wars of occupation as sustainable.\u00a0 The nation\u2019s right wing has become more relentless and exploitative than ever.\u00a0 The left-wing has become more hopeless and distracted than ever.\u00a0 And all the while, the pursuit of ringing or silent cash registers creates the background soundtrack for the never ending wars of influence.<\/p>\n

The author beautifully captures a slice of one of the modern world\u2019s continually shrinking eras of cultural discord, in this case, the period from the late 20th century tech-boom to the rise of the neo-cons just before the great recession of the 21st<\/sup> Century, a period that also encompasses the arrival and evolution of the post 9\/11 world.\u00a0 It may at times seem like a very paranoid and publically anxious time, but the speed at which Warner\u2019s novel unfolds, while touching on the very familiar theme of needing to understand, and thus evolve our families in their wholeness, broke or otherwise, gets the reader to feeling that even these desperate times are in fact, merely passing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“All Her Father’s Guns”, by James Warner. Reviewed for Full of Crow by Paul Corman-Roberts. HIJINX FOR A SAD AND DECLINING EMPIRE 2011, Numina Press, 190 pp. Ostensibly a madcap political caper with two narrators, James Warner\u2019s debut novel \u201cAll Her Father\u2019s Guns\u201d is in fact the story of two \u2026 Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[163,54,164,161,153,162,90],"class_list":["post-378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fiction","tag-all-her-fathers-guns","tag-crow-reviews","tag-debut","tag-james-warner","tag-novel","tag-numina-press","tag-paul-corman-roberts"],"yoast_head":"\n"All Her Father's Guns", James Warner - Crow Reviews<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fullofcrow.com\/crowreviews\/2011\/09\/all-her-fathers-guns-james-warner\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\""All Her Father's Guns", James Warner - Crow Reviews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"“All Her Father’s Guns”, by James Warner. Reviewed for Full of Crow by Paul Corman-Roberts. HIJINX FOR A SAD AND DECLINING EMPIRE 2011, Numina Press, 190 pp. Ostensibly a madcap political caper with two narrators, James Warner\u2019s debut novel \u201cAll Her Father\u2019s Guns\u201d is in fact the story of two \u2026 Continue reading →\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.fullofcrow.com\/crowreviews\/2011\/09\/all-her-fathers-guns-james-warner\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Crow Reviews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-09-08T03:25:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Elynn Alexander\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Elynn Alexander\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.fullofcrow.com\/crowreviews\/2011\/09\/all-her-fathers-guns-james-warner\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.fullofcrow.com\/crowreviews\/2011\/09\/all-her-fathers-guns-james-warner\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Elynn Alexander\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.fullofcrow.com\/crowreviews\/#\/schema\/person\/0c3e05436844453578a7b05a141b254e\"},\"headline\":\"“All Her Father’s Guns”, James Warner\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-09-08T03:25:49+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.fullofcrow.com\/crowreviews\/2011\/09\/all-her-fathers-guns-james-warner\/\"},\"wordCount\":1220,\"keywords\":[\"\\\"All Her Father's Guns\\\"\",\"Crow Reviews\",\"Debut\",\"James Warner\",\"Novel\",\"Numina Press\",\"Paul Corman-Roberts\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Fiction\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.fullofcrow.com\/crowreviews\/2011\/09\/all-her-fathers-guns-james-warner\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.fullofcrow.com\/crowreviews\/2011\/09\/all-her-fathers-guns-james-warner\/\",\"name\":\"\\\"All Her Father's Guns\\\", James Warner - Crow Reviews\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.fullofcrow.com\/crowreviews\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-09-08T03:25:49+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.fullofcrow.com\/crowreviews\/#\/schema\/person\/0c3e05436844453578a7b05a141b254e\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.fullofcrow.com\/crowreviews\/2011\/09\/all-her-fathers-guns-james-warner\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.fullofcrow.com\/crowreviews\/2011\/09\/all-her-fathers-guns-james-warner\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.fullofcrow.com\/crowreviews\/2011\/09\/all-her-fathers-guns-james-warner\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.fullofcrow.com\/crowreviews\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"“All Her Father’s Guns”, James Warner\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.fullofcrow.com\/crowreviews\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.fullofcrow.com\/crowreviews\/\",\"name\":\"Crow Reviews\",\"description\":\"Discussion, Essays, And Analysis\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.fullofcrow.com\/crowreviews\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.fullofcrow.com\/crowreviews\/#\/schema\/person\/0c3e05436844453578a7b05a141b254e\",\"name\":\"Elynn Alexander\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.fullofcrow.com\/crowreviews\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4fe694c5e4b8b16c593cdd73c22d8b69b980e61ed850521d1d3241a771814562?s=96&d=retro&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4fe694c5e4b8b16c593cdd73c22d8b69b980e61ed850521d1d3241a771814562?s=96&d=retro&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Elynn Alexander\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.elynnalexander.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.fullofcrow.com\/crowreviews\/author\/admin\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"\"All Her Father's Guns\", James Warner - Crow Reviews","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.fullofcrow.com\/crowreviews\/2011\/09\/all-her-fathers-guns-james-warner\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"\"All Her Father's Guns\", James Warner - Crow Reviews","og_description":"“All Her Father’s Guns”, by James Warner. Reviewed for Full of Crow by Paul Corman-Roberts. HIJINX FOR A SAD AND DECLINING EMPIRE 2011, Numina Press, 190 pp. Ostensibly a madcap political caper with two narrators, James Warner\u2019s debut novel \u201cAll Her Father\u2019s Guns\u201d is in fact the story of two \u2026 Continue reading →","og_url":"https:\/\/www.fullofcrow.com\/crowreviews\/2011\/09\/all-her-fathers-guns-james-warner\/","og_site_name":"Crow Reviews","article_published_time":"2011-09-08T03:25:49+00:00","author":"Elynn Alexander","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Elynn Alexander","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.fullofcrow.com\/crowreviews\/2011\/09\/all-her-fathers-guns-james-warner\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.fullofcrow.com\/crowreviews\/2011\/09\/all-her-fathers-guns-james-warner\/"},"author":{"name":"Elynn Alexander","@id":"https:\/\/www.fullofcrow.com\/crowreviews\/#\/schema\/person\/0c3e05436844453578a7b05a141b254e"},"headline":"“All Her Father’s Guns”, James Warner","datePublished":"2011-09-08T03:25:49+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.fullofcrow.com\/crowreviews\/2011\/09\/all-her-fathers-guns-james-warner\/"},"wordCount":1220,"keywords":["\"All Her Father's Guns\"","Crow Reviews","Debut","James Warner","Novel","Numina Press","Paul Corman-Roberts"],"articleSection":["Fiction"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.fullofcrow.com\/crowreviews\/2011\/09\/all-her-fathers-guns-james-warner\/","url":"https:\/\/www.fullofcrow.com\/crowreviews\/2011\/09\/all-her-fathers-guns-james-warner\/","name":"\"All Her Father's Guns\", James Warner - Crow Reviews","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.fullofcrow.com\/crowreviews\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-09-08T03:25:49+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.fullofcrow.com\/crowreviews\/#\/schema\/person\/0c3e05436844453578a7b05a141b254e"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.fullofcrow.com\/crowreviews\/2011\/09\/all-her-fathers-guns-james-warner\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.fullofcrow.com\/crowreviews\/2011\/09\/all-her-fathers-guns-james-warner\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.fullofcrow.com\/crowreviews\/2011\/09\/all-her-fathers-guns-james-warner\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.fullofcrow.com\/crowreviews\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"“All Her Father’s Guns”, James Warner"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.fullofcrow.com\/crowreviews\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.fullofcrow.com\/crowreviews\/","name":"Crow Reviews","description":"Discussion, Essays, And Analysis","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.fullofcrow.com\/crowreviews\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.fullofcrow.com\/crowreviews\/#\/schema\/person\/0c3e05436844453578a7b05a141b254e","name":"Elynn Alexander","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.fullofcrow.com\/crowreviews\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4fe694c5e4b8b16c593cdd73c22d8b69b980e61ed850521d1d3241a771814562?s=96&d=retro&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4fe694c5e4b8b16c593cdd73c22d8b69b980e61ed850521d1d3241a771814562?s=96&d=retro&r=g","caption":"Elynn Alexander"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/www.elynnalexander.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.fullofcrow.com\/crowreviews\/author\/admin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fullofcrow.com\/crowreviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fullofcrow.com\/crowreviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fullofcrow.com\/crowreviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fullofcrow.com\/crowreviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fullofcrow.com\/crowreviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=378"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.fullofcrow.com\/crowreviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":379,"href":"https:\/\/www.fullofcrow.com\/crowreviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378\/revisions\/379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fullofcrow.com\/crowreviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fullofcrow.com\/crowreviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fullofcrow.com\/crowreviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}