Accidental absurdist, Jake Dustin lives many lives, none more confusing than his own.
“Life doesn’t come with instructions. You’re either happy or you’re not.”
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Jacket Copy – Somewhere East of Me
Denver writer Jake Dustin is untethered from indolence when his estranged sister announces South Carolina is exhuming their mother. With no choice but to go, Jake embarks on a cross-country odyssey of uproarious absurdity and self-exploration during the strange days of September 2021. Jake feeds the internet’s insatiable lust for content as the miles rumble by while pondering where he lost his inner child and why he lives in his ex-wife’s basement. Along the way, a rousing cast of characters like St. Louis Hobo, Tough-luck Chuck, and PTSD-ridden Spooky Cody offer a visceral distillation of life’s eclectic reality.
More than a metaphor, Somewhere East of Me untangles America’s course through the 21st Century in a poignant snapshot of where we are and how we got here. If you are ready for a rollicking adventure filled with unexpected twists, laugh-out-loud hilarity, and the infinite wisdom of mutants in the middle of nowhere – buckle up. Join Jake for an absorbing romp as he considers the common truths and complicated circumstances of the human condition in a cathartic jaunt you can’t put down. Merging historical fact and hysterical fiction Somewhere East of Me is postmodern literature written for a text message attention span. U’ll dig it
Meet Jake Dustin
As a once-promising writer, I didn’t have a lot of obligations where work was concerned. I had written a novel in my late twenties, which remained my life’s only real success. A few critics enjoyed my book, which brought me a little attention. Once, I was a guest on a TV talk show. I had a 4:00 a.m. call and a seven-hour wait at a studio in Atlanta for about 45 seconds of screen time with the show’s four female hosts and a man who made dairy-free cheese. The book sales were low, but a major motion picture studio picked up the rights three years later. Then, my novel became a movie. Critics panned the film for the acting, writing, pace, and story. Since the movie sucked, nobody else bothered to read the book.
Despite the lack of literary success, the payout for the movie rights was fantastic. The money funded a significant number of the best days of my life. I strung quite a few of them together over fuzzy conversations with strangers in bars about how brilliant I was. Nobody cared.
Jake’s route across the mid-western heart of America. It’s four days of wandering and wondering, Somewhere East of Me.
Meet Angel Dustin
Though she didn’t vote, Angel was a dedicated social agitator. She had a fair amount of free time and spent some of it trolling conservatives on Fox News and The Hill. She enjoyed posting inflammatory rhetoric about the evils of the Constitution, abortion legislation, guns, white supremacy, McDonalds, and the government.
Aimed at provoking the Internet’s many antithetical others, she posted comments like “Men who oppose abortion don’t pay their child support” in the message section of an article about the Supreme Court. Then, she would egg on half a dozen pro-life supporters for as long as they argued back. Some of them were relentless. They sizzled with rage from Idaho and Iowa while she logged in and out of her many online personas using screen names like Unlucky Lady and Grizz’Jizz. She called it Sport Fishing.
About Sean Vincent O’Keefe
Labeled twice exceptional in third grade, Sean Vincent O’Keefe is a life-long writer, unpaid poet, and seeker of truth. By way of chance, he wrote Somewhere East of Me in the fall of 2021 and refined it for years before release in April 2024.
Sean writes about architecture, engineering, and construction in the morning and whatever he wants in the afternoon. These days, Sean is married to his best friend, and they have a healthy, whole, nutty family of their own in Denver, CO. He walks dogs and takes pictures when he’s not making stuff up.
Referential Background – Somewhere East of Me
Somewhere East of Me belongs in a genre known as Absurdist Fiction. Absurdism focuses on the experiences of characters that cannot find any inherent purpose in life. This is often represented by meaningless actions and events that call into question the certainty of existential concepts.
Absurdist fiction uses satire and dark humor. Often pessimistic themes explore nihilism and human responses including escapism, religiosity, and the conscious construction of a personal purpose.
Classic examples of absurdist fiction include The Trial by Franz Kafka and The Stranger by Albert Camus. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller, became a catch phrase and Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk inspired a generation.
The writing style is postmodern. Stylistically and ideologically the storytelling involves fragmentation, paradox, unreliable narrators, intertwined plots, dark humor, and authorial self-reference. Likewise, the writing treats text and language as the fundamental phenomena of existence. Followed, logically, by the application of literary analysis to such. Additionally, the writing questions reality, often through a shifting sense of time. Lastly, postmodernism frequently supposes a general critique of Western institutions and knowledge.
Personally influential examples of postmodern literature include A Clock Work Orange by Anthony Burgess, In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson, and On the Road by Jack Kerouac.
Contact: Sean Vincent O’Keefe / 303.668.0717 / sean@sokpr.com