 Welcome to Church of the Chair, where we're going to read books whether they're popular or not. I'm your host, E, and today we're talking about a book that the vast majority of you have never even heard of. Because this book is so rare it is available on Amazon through Overlook Press after decades of not being available at all, I'm going to put certain spoilers in this review so if you have any want or need to read this book, I suggest you click away now. Today we're talking about The Stones of Summer by Dow Mosman. So my buddy Josh put me on to this book and I had no interest in reading it, just being honest, but he also sent me a link to the documentary created by Mark Moskowitz called Stone Reader and I kind of fell in love with the idea behind the book, but I will say upfront that I found the documentary and the story of Dow Mosman's life far more interesting than the book itself. I wish I would have gone into the book without having watched the documentary beforehand, but I doubt I would have read the book to begin with had I not watched the documentary. The documentary is here on YouTube, I will leave a link down there in the description. You can check it out if you like, you do have to pay for it. It is a beautiful documentary about a man who is in love with books and came across this book, fell head over heels and tells the story of this loner, hermit, reclusive author who vanished off the face of the planet after his book came out. There are many reasons for why this book is not known very well in pop culture. One of the reasons is it only had a 7000 print run and its publisher Bob's Meryl went bankrupt shortly after the book was released. On top of that, Dow Mosman himself had a quote unquote nervous breakdown and he disappeared off the face of the planet as well. Interestingly enough, Mark Moskowitz was able to track down Dow Mosman and was able to talk to him and that is the part of the documentary that really hit home for me. Being a writer myself and how much time and effort goes into a book, seeing how many times he rewrote the book, seeing how much of himself he put into it and how the book eventually drove him crazy, it's a hell of a watch and I highly suggest you watch the documentary even if you do not plan to read the book especially if you are a book lover, a reader, because Mark's passion for books is on showcase. The only criticism I have is if you're someone who doesn't like seeing books slapped around, bent open, spines cracked, Mark is very heavy handed so go into that knowing that you might be a little uncomfortable watching this person who loves books nearly destroy them every time he touches them. Now let's get into the review. The book is cut up into three sections or three parts if you will. The first section is a coming of age story about the main character Dawes Williams growing up in Dawes City, Iowa and yes the town is named after his family who were shamed and ruined. My favorite part of this section of the book, hands down, was Abigail Weynes. W-I-N-A-S, it might even be Vinus, I'm not sure, but she was my favorite part of that section of the book, unfortunately I do not remember much of what happens without Abigail in it. The next section is my favorite section of the book, it's when Dawes becomes an older teen and his group of rowdy friends, there's a lot of sexual undertones throughout and Dawes even manages to have two girlfriends at one time. There's some awkward stuff, there's a bunch of hilarious stuff especially with the teens getting drunk together, but what really stood out for me, the thing that will forever live in my head when I think of this book is the ending of section two. There is a car crash, there is a tragedy and holy shit that made the book for me and it's probably the only reason I'm giving it the three stars that I am instead of maybe one or two because once the third section starts I completely lost interest in the book. It took me a year and a half to finish the last 200 pages of this book when Dawes Williams ends up going to Mexico and all of the stuff that happens there, the reason why is it's very surreal, Dawes at this point in time is schizophrenic, he has traveled down to rabbit hole and completely lost himself after the death of his friends and I couldn't hold the thread. If it was meant to give you the confusion and uncertainty and unreliability that you might have with this schizophrenic character, he absolutely nailed it, but my problem is the book is highly readable up until that point and then the final section comes and it's a complete clusterfuck. We jump around in time, we go from sections that are written by Dawes himself and sections that are narrative, I believe it's the difference between italics and regular font. The issue is you never know when these things break apart and I guess once again it is on theme, but my problem is consistency. The first two sections of the book, you're not watching Dawes go crazy, you are watching him come of age and you are watching him deal with being a teenager in this small town, alcohol use and all that stuff and then the third section comes and it's all over the place and I know that's how these things work, I know it can be sudden onset or caused by trauma, but I can only be honest with you and this last section was a chore to get through even though I understood the themes, I understood some of what was going on, it didn't feel consistent with the rest of the book and that is my problem and my rating just plummeted after that up until part 3 I was at a good 4.5 stars at least. As I said at the beginning of the video, this book is available once again after decades of being unpublished through Overlook books, they republish the book thanks to Mark Moskowitz, the director of the documentary I talked about before Stone Reader and it is still available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, all that stuff. Do I recommend the book? Sure. If you're someone who likes the themes that I talked about here, if you're someone who likes surrealism toward the end of the book just know that it's coming, it is going to be a, it's going to be, take an effort to get through the last bit of the book. This is literary fiction so it's going to be brick after brick uptext, just make sure you know that. There's some reviews that call this a thriller, this is not a thriller whatsoever, it is definitely literary fiction filled with drama. There is really no suspense, at least there wasn't on my part, but go into it knowing all of that. The closest thing I can come to with a comparison to this book would be John Irving, even though this one is even more overly written than John Irving usually does. Or maybe a Philip Roth. There's definitely some uncomfortable scenes in Vane with Philip Roth and there is a lot of family drama in Vane with John Irving. So knowing those things, if you enjoy that stuff and you think you would enjoy a completely bat shit take in that third section then check it out. I'm not going to chase you away from the book, but at the end of the day I'm sitting at three stars. Many thanks to my friend Josh for sending me the book, especially for sending me the link to Stone Reader. It now holds pride of place as my favorite documentary especially about books and if you are a fan of books, as I said before, you are going to love this documentary even if Mark Moskowitz doesn't know how to handle a book. But that's all the time I have for you today. If you want to check out the book, there's an affiliate link down there in the description that you can click on. I get a few pennies, you get the book, so on and so forth, you know how these things work by now. But until next time, I'll hail the chair.