fiction

So here we are the day after such an historic election, one full of hope for some and angst for others, and it is my pleasure to present to you my new novel Sorrow.

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A disillusioned aging white male forsakes all humanity, changes his name to Sorrow, and begins identifying as an it, just as its white son learns his Black girlfriend is pregnant, and you begin a murderous rampage targeting interracial couples just like them.

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I believe I mentioned here in the past that I completed a novel in the summer of 2023, and that I was determined to get it published in a traditional manner. Well, after a year-and-a-half of the manuscript being rejected — and by being rejected I mean mostly being ignored — by over a dozen publishers, it is time for me to face the reality that the only way this novel will get published is independently by yours truly.

Since I am seeking your help in getting the word out about Sorrow, particularly by you reading a free advanced copy of the book and posting your review of it at all the usual places, I should probably make you aware of the potential elements of the tale that may cause concern to some.

Let’s not call them “trigger warnings” because that term in itself is quite triggering to many; let’s instead call these concerning elements of the tale simply “noted concerns.”

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SORROW’S NOTED CONCERNS

• Behavioral health concerns
• Suicidal ideations concerns
• Abortion concerns
• Homelessness concerns
• Homicidal concerns
• Gun violence concerns
• Police brutality concerns
• Racism concerns
• Identity concerns
• Pronoun concerns
• Sexual content concerns
• Brief nudity concerns
• Vulgar language concerns
• Religious cult concerns
• Alcoholism concerns
• Smoking, both tobacco and marijuana, concerns
• Pandemic masking concerns
• Fully developed Black, Hispanic, and white female characters created by an old white male concerns

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I think that about covers the concerning elements of the tale, with some elements, of course, being more concerning than others. At least now you have some idea of what to expect of the story’s content. If it were a movie it would definitely have a solid “R” rating.

I guess I should point out that there are also some magical realism and meta-fictional elements involved in the tale. Perhaps, depending on your literary sensitivities, they too should be included in the noted concerns section, lol.

Anyway…

What is the crux of Sorrow?

Let me give you a full synopsis of it (or is it summary? I always get the two confused):

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Harold Thorson Sterner, Sr., who had come to be known as Hank, an aging white male no longer able to bear the downward spiraling, troubled state of the world, has decided to end his relationship with it, the world, and all that it entails: all humanity and its entire “civilized” existence, his name, his family, his profession, all his responsibilities, everything, even, perhaps, his conscious mind.

To ensure his new relationship with the world is clear and properly regarded by others, he legally changes his name from Harold Thorson Sterner, Sr., to Sorrow and begins identifying, not as a man, or even as a human for that matter, but simply as a being, an it.

He, or rather, it, has made this what turns out to be rather ironic decision to forsake humanity just as its white aspiring author son learns his Black aspiring business executive girlfriend is pregnant, and you, an aspiring serial killer, begin a murderous rampage targeting interracial couples just like them out in sunny Los Angeles.

Sorrow, up until now a semi-celebrated author who had moved recently to sunny Los Angeles to adapt its former self’s successful novels into screenplays, attempts to explain its decision to forsake the world it in a letter to its estranged wife Evelyn, who now lives separated and carefree from her disillusioned husband in Miami, enjoying life with her young Cuban boytoy Alejo.

The letter, more a missive really, prompts Sorrow’s son, who is already in the midst of his own crisis due to his girlfriend’s unexpected pregnancy, to trek out to LA in hope of finding his odd father and providing him the care that he needs. His girlfriend, distraught at her boyfriend’s untimely departure, soon follows him out there. Together in LA, the troubled couple has unwittingly placed themselves at risk of your violent wrath.

And so, as the story unfolds and Sorrow slowly morphs into what? a Christ-like figure? a mad bodhisattva? just another behavioral health breakdown victim littering the streets of LA?, and as whatever it morphs into somehow draws to it other disillusioned souls who begin worshipping it, and as three of its original acolytes, a self-identified indigent and two hippies, are able to magically fly – one by spinning his long, matted hair like helicopter rotor blades and the others by vigorously flapping large palm fronds typically reserved for their worship of Sorrow – and use these skills to fight evil forces on behalf of Sorrow, and as all but one of the story’s narrators mysteriously, suspiciously, disappear, and even as the body count from your murderous rampage steadily grows around it…

Sorrow does not respond.

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Okay, maybe that was a bit TMI, but, simply put, what we have here with Sorrow is a very contemporary tale with all of society’s, especially American society’s, tragedy and drama, hopes and dreams.

If you are interested in reading and reviewing Sorrow, and I hope you are, please email me at hank@kurtbrindley.com and I’ll shoot you a copy post haste, as I hope to have the story published on Amazon soon.

Or you can just leave a comment here if you prefer and we can take it from there.

Yeah…

#sorrowistheway