REVIEW: Further Out Than You Thought by Michaela Carter

'Further Out Than You Thought,'
By Michaela Carter;
Williams Morrow Paperbacks,
August 2014.Gwen, Valiant, Leo. Diverse futures spread before them. But, in the present, does that future matter?
For Gwen, the future includes the complication of an unborn child and all the unanswered questions growing alongside it. Should she stay with Leo? How long will she be able to continue her lucrative career in stripping? For Valentine, the future appears bleak, inebriated and short-lived. Suffering from AIDS and alcoholism, his future could end that day for all he knows. For Leo, the future depends solely on the next idea to pop in his freewheeling head. Leo himself rarely knows what that idea may be.
Set in the fires of riot-torn 1992 Los Angeles, Michaela Carter’s memorable first novel “Further Out Than You Thought” explores the lives of three very different individuals who are inexorably intertwined by the inescapable bonds of friendship and love.
The L.A. Riots, spurned by the Rodney King verdict so many years ago, and so very fresh in the minds of readers now exposed to the fiery racial confrontations in Ferguson, MO, plays a key role in the trio’s life journey.

But the smoke of conflict and social injustice cannot be called a simple villain, nor is it something to be feared and dissected by sociology majors. Here the riots are an encouraging breath of fresh air, an impetus to action. The riots keep the chairs too hot to sit on, forcing the characters to stay on their feet, to remain active and vibrant throughout the novel.
Poetic descriptions add an endless well of emotion to this fast-paced, compelling novel of self-discovery. The book carries heartfelt, yet street-wise, musings on the questions we all face at one point in our largely disappointing lives.
As told from Gwen’s perspective, the Further Out Than You Thought nods to the hard knocks life can provide with an accurate, and acute, sense of detail, not to mention a rather Irish trait of longing for a life that might have been.
Feminine empowerment, which can cross an invisible border into female supremacy if not checked, is touched on briefly within the pages of the book, but largely cast aside in favor of a more human experience – something relatable to both men and women. And the strength of the feminine experience, which Carter draws from, never goes for lofty when it can remain equal. It isn’t in Gwen’s nature, or in the author’s perhaps, to think herself better. Smarter, perhaps, but not better.
Fictional explorations of the famed Rodney King riots, while not new, carry their own unique sense of historical awareness. Novels such as “The Tattooed Soldier” by Hector Tobar and “The Metaphysical Touch” by Sylvia Brownrigg offer their own reality to the surreal chain of events. Carter, however, brings a sensual edginess, a melancholy Generation-X attitude, to her work –and spins what could very well be a modern cultural classic.
Read more about Carter on her website by clicking here.
Order a copy of “Further Out Than You Thought” here.