Artsy Fartsy WEIRDOS ...

THE FLAMETHROWERS by Rachel Kushner (2013 Scribner / 383 pp / hc)

Kushner's second novel deals with an experimental artist nick-named Reno (we never learn her real name), which is given to her in honor of her hometown. The novel is told from her point of view in 1976, with a second storyline dealing with the history of a tire-making family/company in Italy. Besides being an artist, Reno also lives for speed; she grew up skiing and now rides a slick new Italian motorcycle and attempts to not only break a land speed record on the Utah salt flats, but to photograph her track marks as an artistic piece.

When Reno moves to New York City, she meets an odd waitress and has a one night stand with a self-absorbed artist, then eventually meets Sandro, a much older man as well as wealthy heir of the aforementioned tire company. Through Sandro, Reno becomes involved with New York's underground art scene, although she never really becomes recognized for her artwork. She does, however, become a pinup icon for Sandro's family's tire company, and she gets him to reluctantly go to Italy where she can again try for another speed record.

But once they're in Italy, Reno doesn't get along with Sandro's demanding mother and an old flame happens to come by his family's villa. When Reno catches Sandro cheating on her, she leaves the villa with the groundskeeper, who happens to be part of an underground movement dedicated to taking down Sandro's family's empire.

When Reno finally gets back to New York, a city-wide blackout brings looting and a similar feel to the upheaval she just left behind in Italy, and she attempts to come to terms with her lost relationship with both Sandro, her spaced-out waitress "friend," and her one-time lover (who the author spends an unnecessary amount of time in Chapter Sixteen giving back story about).

THE FLAMETHROWERS is a wonderfully written novel if a bit frustrating: we cheer on Reno as she slowly discovers herself, but we never get to see her accomplish much, especially with her artwork. And while Kushner gives us some really shady and unlikeable characters, the novel thrives by the way Reno interacts with them. Her observations are often unusual, funny, and always give the author an interesting canvas to work her words with.

This may be considered hipster-lit, but Kushner's way of dealing with the historic settings makes it wildly entertaining and not, as I had worried before reading, just another stale interpretation of 1970's New York.