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Austin Nights

by herocious (Goodreads Author)

3.62 of 5 stars 3.62 · rating details · 29 ratings · 11 reviews

Bridget had a fierce desire for survival which made her a fighter. Michael had a hankering after immortality which made him a useless dreamer. And that was the great difference between these two Austin transplants who loved each other so well.

Literature/Fiction

Paperback, handpressed, 162 pages

Published February 14th 2011 by Tiny TOE Press

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May 11, 2013 Fawzy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Plot is overrated. That's one the many things I thought when finishing Austin Nights by Herocious (AKA Michael Davidson). Why do we always need drama? Why can't we just read a book about people's lives that's not tragic or melodramatic or full of made up problems for the sake of story.
The only plot to speak of in Austin Nights is that of a young couple moving to Austin from Miami Beach and everything that happens before, in the middle, and after the trip. Yet even with that, I found myself capti...more Plot is overrated. That's one the many things I thought when finishing Austin Nights by Herocious (AKA Michael Davidson). Why do we always need drama? Why can't we just read a book about people's lives that's not tragic or melodramatic or full of made up problems for the sake of story.
The only plot to speak of in Austin Nights is that of a young couple moving to Austin from Miami Beach and everything that happens before, in the middle, and after the trip. Yet even with that, I found myself captivated for the prose was that good.
The best test of a good writer is how much story can they pack in the most minimum of words. Do we always need epic tomes when we could tell the same story with a bigger punch in less words?
Camera by Jean Phillippe Toussaint has an unnamed protagonist that takes driving lessons, falls in love with a receptionist, takes a trip and nothing much else happens. But if you read this slim novel closely a lot does.
Austin Nights has the same intimacy on the pages. You recognize these characters because at some point in time or perhaps as you're even reading it, you were or are those characters. Michael and Bridget are dealing with all the same problems of this generation like school loans, unemployment, and an unknown future. There is an intimacy in every section that endears the characters to the reader. You care about them and want to be assured that things are going to be alright for them. Michael Davidson skirts a fine line of anticipation in the book that could have made it unreadable. He knew that there was only one plot point of which the story would gravitate around and that was the big move from Miami Beach to Austin. Mixing the chapters gives the story the feeling of being in the cusp of a great discovery. Imagine Carter and Herbert the moment before they open King Tut's tomb. Now freeze that feeling. That's the feeling that runs through the whole book. The prose gives you a happy feeling and you think or expect something really bad or good to happen and nothing does. And you read the next section and you're back to the same feeling again. This book emphasizes the journey and not the destination which is what's so wonderful about it. But you really have to listen to it and pay attention because the whole text is like a beautiful little folk song being sung by two people in love. Yep, kind of like a nice little 2 minute Bob Dylan ditty. And there are sections that are even as intimate and song-whispery as THIS.
But real life in books is more interesting when you can relate to it. Huge decisions like: what am I going to do for the rest of my life? Who will I love for the rest of my life? Who will choose to love me for the rest of my life? How big is a risk to move thousands of miles away to Austin to be with the person I love while she follows her dreams? What are my dreams? Am I writer? Am I bum pretending to be a writer just to push off real life? And when will this real life creep up on me?
Michael walks around Austin happy go-lucky yet scared of this real life sneaking up on him. He questions his choices. He eats. He goes to the library with Bridgett. He mistreats Honeyed Cat. He explores his new surroundings wanting to find this real life before it creeps up on him. He's searching for the prize, lost in Austin bicycling, avoiding drunk bums that end up dead later, his eyes opened wide-eyed and curious for his future while appreciating the present.
In a way, Austin Nights almost felt like a book written by a Buddhist. The narrator despite worried for his own future, lives mainly in the present like we all should. Michael and Bridget, though far from perfect people seem to exist in a little bubble of love that most of their neighbors can't penetrate. There's a juxtaposition between Michael and Bridget's own life together in Austin and the lives of the crazy neighbors, hard partying college students, and weird leprechaun library dwellers that turn out to be ambitious entrepreneurs. And there's even a Larry McMurtry cameo which is hilarious.
Austin Nights also reminded me of the best parts of the film Blue Valentine by Derek Cianfrance. The shifting back and forth in story is a great device but it works best when a clear theme is followed as in Austin Nights and Slaughter House Five. As a matter of fact, this book almost seemed like Bizarro Blue Valentine. Where in Blue Valentine the drama almost seemed forced. And as viewers we were forgiving of that melodrama cause we were so satisfied with the brilliant happy scenes with Ryan Gosling courting Michelle Williams with a ukulele. But in Austin Nights there was no jarring moments between scenes like going from an extremely happy scene to a sad scene. So almost imagine Blue Valentine if shit hadn't gone down the way it had. Austin Nights is Blue Valentine without the forced drama. So if you loved Blue Valentine for its happy moments and hated the ending, you should run and buy Austin Nights. Who didn't want Ryan Gosling to man up, stop his drinking and become a responsible husband and step father? And what would have been so wrong with that being the ending of the movie? Picture Ryan Gosling going to AA meetings and then taking an hour long drive for a job interview that goes just okay and then on the way back to his family he gets a flat and the closest establishment is a bar where he has to go in to borrow a phone for a tow truck. So Ryan calls the tow truck and he takes a seat cause it's gonna be a while and it's raining outside. So the bartender naturally offers him a drink and Ryan Gosling stops and smiles for a second, and without saying it, we, as the viewers know what he's thinking about and he politely declines the bartender and asks for a piece of apple pie. Pie says the bartender? Yes, do you have apple pie? Or any kind of pie? As a matter of fact we have Cherry Pie, will that do for you? Yes, let me get some cherry pie. The End.
It also felt like Davidson wrote his own perfect version of On the Road for his narrator's sentimental look at the world and naivete reminded me a lot of Sal Paradise. Both On the Road and Austin Nights are full of sentimental love but the latter never gets too sentimental. Michael keeps it in check and that's a good thing. The same love of America can be found in Austin Nights. The same optimism for our one saving grace that is our multicultural society.
There were also many excerpts in Austin Nights that reach Jack Saunders greatness and can go toe to toe (no pun intended) with the great Florida writer. It's refreshing to read a love story where the main character is the love and not the problems surrounding it. Who knew there would be people like Michael Davidson to write books like these?
In closing, like Proust long before him, Michael Davidson is allowing intimacy to become an art form and that is a beautiful thing. Austin Nights is a book for the careful reader that hates noisy prose. It is a quiet book that makes a loud statements about the everyday moments we take for granted and the ones that matter most. There are no literary tricks or monsters or serial killers just a couple in love and a temperamental cat and the city of Austin, Texas. It's the equivalent of an angel whispering in your ears: it's the little things my friend, the little things.
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May 31, 2012 Dee added it

Review Copy Provided by Author

I’m going to be honest up-front and say that this is a DNF review. I made it approximately a tenth of the way through the book before I gave up on it. Based on the description provided, this sounded like an interesting read, so I requested it through one of my goodreads group (to which the author had donated a copy of members to review).

However, upon starting to read, I was immediately confused as to what was going on. There was no semblance of chapters, but rather...more Review Copy Provided by Author

I’m going to be honest up-front and say that this is a DNF review. I made it approximately a tenth of the way through the book before I gave up on it. Based on the description provided, this sounded like an interesting read, so I requested it through one of my goodreads group (to which the author had donated a copy of members to review).

However, upon starting to read, I was immediately confused as to what was going on. There was no semblance of chapters, but rather vignettes of different experiences. I still can’t figure out how the numbering for these went, it started at 3, went to 1, then jumped to 4 and back to 1…so I was wondering if there was something funky with my copy. Looking at some of the reviews on amazon they talk about how it is a stream of consciousness work, but if that is the case, then it is an extremely fractured stream – in one vignette, the two main characters Michael and Bridgette are driving to Austin, then they are in Austin, and then they are back on the road. There is swapping of points of view from Michael to Bridget without any indication (normally the only sign of that is mentioning the other person’s name).

When I started to look closer and try to re-read a couple of the scenes to understand, it seemed as though the author expected the reader to see other places. For example, in one part he talks about his grandfather and how he used to visit him in college. He ends the scene with the statement that he hasn’t seen his grandfather in a while, but then says that “I can tell he’s freshly barbered, straight razor and all, doing the best he can” – while I assume this means, he is projecting the imagine of what he remembers his grandfather to be, it just doesn’t ring true – if his grandfather was that influential – why hasn’t he seen him recently, are they staying in touch – it just seems very disjoined.

One of my pet peeve’s when it comes to books is when stuff is said in 20 words what could be said in 5 or 10, and in the few sections that I read, this did seem to be an issue. Maybe it is because as part of my job we focus on writing for maximum utility, but the verbose-ness of the language used was distracting and maybe played into why I was having difficulties reading it. (less)

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Oct 03, 2011 University of Chicago Magazine added it

Shelves: college

Michael Davidson, AB'02
Author

When the allure of graduate school tempts Bridget and Michael to leave their home in Miami Beach and move to the University of Texas, the wide-eyed transplants find themselves alone in a city that boasts of its weirdness. Unable to unpack in their tiny sublet, the couple leaves their meager belongings boxed up and sets out to explore their new home. Before long, they discover that the city more than lives up to its reputation: crazed library patrons, injured vagabond...more

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Jun 13, 2011 Charity rated it 1 of 5 stars

For a novel to work when it is a loose narrative construction of memories/journal type writing that fully embraces the disjointed narrative, the prose needs to be strong. If the prose is not strong, the narrative structure becomes a hinderance. While I can appreciate what Mr. Davidson was trying to do in the novel and can see a few flashes of interesting writing, for the majority of the text I had to drag myself through to finish it. The prose is flat and ineffective. The dialogue does little to...more

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Nov 12, 2012 herocious . rated it 5 of 5 stars · (Review from the author)

i know what you're thinking.

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May 30, 2011 Lori rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: arc-reviewers-copy, signed-by-author, fiction

Hand-made with love from the author/publisher
Read 5/19/11 - 5/21/11
3.5 Stars - Strongly Recommended to readers familiar with genre
Pgs:162

Austin Nights is the product of Tiny TOE Press, a DIY Publishing house run by Michael Davidson and his girlfriend. This is the first title released by the two person operation and each copy is handmade with love on their kitchen table.

The novel is a series of out-of-order journal entries that document the lives of Michael and Bridget (and their Honeyed Cat) dur...more Hand-made with love from the author/publisher
Read 5/19/11 - 5/21/11
3.5 Stars - Strongly Recommended to readers familiar with genre
Pgs:162

Austin Nights is the product of Tiny TOE Press, a DIY Publishing house run by Michael Davidson and his girlfriend. This is the first title released by the two person operation and each copy is handmade with love on their kitchen table.

The novel is a series of out-of-order journal entries that document the lives of Michael and Bridget (and their Honeyed Cat) during their relocation from Miami to Austin. Written in first person accounts, both Michael and Bridget share memories with the reader in what appears to be no particular order.

The chapters, or sections, are numbered but do not run sequentially. Initially I was going to try to read them in order, but quickly realized that I couldn't do that, since all of the chapter (or memory entries) were only one digit each, and those digits repeated endlessly throughout the novel.

It was until I neared the very end of the novel that the key to those oddly numbered chapters revealed itself, and even then, I didn't catch on right away. Ohhh, Michael.. you are a subtle little trickster!

Our narrators do a great job of creating this quiet, ever present sense of doom - for him, for her, or for both. Throughout the novel, you're anticipating something but you're not sure what exactly to anticipate. It's almost like "choose your own foreshadowing", which recurring concern will be the one to "get them"... Will the elven library leprechaun do harm to Bridget? Will Michael get stung by a bee? Will their crazy neighbor attack them? Will Michael fail to return from one of his runs?

Austin Nights is a relatively quick read. The chapters are quite short so you feel like you are making tremendous progress, which combats the frustration of the small font: More words on a page but less pages overall.

If the book had anything working against it, it would be the seemingly random story line. I found it hard to describe the book's plot, and ended up simply explaining what I had read up to that point. I am not sure that the author ever meant for the book to have a clear beginning, middle, or end - I believe the expectation was for it to appear as though it were pages ripped from a journal, shuffled through, and then stuffed back together. But the entire time I was reading it, I was wishing it was a bit more structured.

Michael Davidson did a wonderful job with the book as a physical object. To the average eye, it looks like any other paperback novel. I don't know that anyone would be able to determine that it was put together by hand in their home. It most definitely withstood the wear and tear and travel I put it through these last 3 days...Excellent job.

For more information on Michael, check out the article he wrote for us on "Being Indie". To get a better feel for the novel, check out the book trailer on my blog: http://thenextbestbookblog.blogspot.c...(less)

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Jul 04, 2012 Alison rated it 1 of 5 stars

Not my type of writing...I stuck with it to the end b/c I am from Austin and recognized the places that were written about.

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Aug 02, 2011 Pete Morin rated it 5 of 5 stars

One of the best works of literary fiction I've read in decades.

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Apr 22, 2013 Betty Jean rated it 1 of 5 stars

Such a slow read that I couldn't even finish it :(

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Jul 12, 2012 Lakshmi Raj added it

Very inviting!

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Sep 27, 2012 Stephen rated it 3 of 5 stars

I liked the device of narration out of time and by two characters, but like a lot of devices it got old.

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About herocious

Michael "herocious" Davidson was born during a thunderstorm on Mars. He enjoys long runs on the beach, poetry, and candlelight dinners. Once, he tipped a homeless window washer with spiritual enlightenment.

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