Book Review: Head Cleaner by David James Keaton

 

Head Cleaner By David James Keaton

336 pages, Paperback

Published Jan, 2023 Polis Books.

One of the things about getting older for me was explaining to young movie nerds how the video store worked. The conversation veered towards how we graded movies on a curve and would finish them because we took them home and had to live with our pick. Roger Avery and Quintin Tarantino are educating young film nerds about the VHS era because despite everything else available they still love those tapes. Head Cleaner is at times a loving tribute and novel inspired by the era. That is not to say it doesn’t play with the less awesome parts. It does.

David James Keaton's writing has appeared in over 75 publications, online and in print. He received his MFA from my father’s beloved University of Pittsburgh. I know him as the author of the Last Projector From Broken River Books and social media film commentator. As in I pay attention to his opinions even when I don’t always agree. Two short story collections and four novels I am sorry that I am pointing to movie posts- but I enjoy them.

Head Cleaner was a novel I went into on the strength of the writer and cold. Meaning I  didn’t read plot descriptions or blurbs. I enjoyed reading the book this way and gave it five stars so this is your chance to pull the rip-cord and go buy/read it without me going deeper.

This novel takes place at The Last Blockbuster video store. Now in real life, that store was in Bend Oregon, but one of the things I like about this novel is there is no attempt to ground it in reality. I don’t believe the name of the town is ever given. If you want a Bend Oregon horror novel you’ll have to read The Loop by Jeremy Robert Johnson.

Head Cleaner kicks off with a wild night at the Blockbuster, the crew working at the store includes Eva, Jerry a movie nerd, and the manager of the store Randy. They decide to track a VCR they rented out and has racked up an internet-famous amount. Once our heroes track it down they find a nasty reason there was no return. The renter has shot herself and set it up to film them discovering the scene. Once they investigate to see if they are on tape, they find events changed.

Over a series of events that unfolded with perfect narrative flow Eva and the crew discover that the VCR itself can change the past, including the movies on their shelves. It is funny because I have read SF where history changes but something about the idea of the movies changing too creeped me out.

As a work of art Head Cleaner uses the VCR and videotape culture to weaponize nostalgia against the reader as the driving force of weird and horrific parts of the story. I am sure how this book would work for younger folks or readers without VCR experience as I don’t understand that existence.

    “Everybody goes back in time to kill Hitler, but I’d totally buy a shit ton of Netflix stock.
    But it was their whole “No due dates” thing that he couldn’t wrap his head around. To Randy, this new paradigm was worse than the decimation of brick-and-mortar video stores. These kids didn’t know how easy they had it these days! Randy remembered when you actually had to call a video store to hold a movie for the weekend.
    And you were thankful.”

     Reading that passage you may think this is an author writing about the good old days when we walked uphill both ways.  Those moments are there but that doesn’t overtake the narrative, I think people who didn’t live in an era writing about it (Looking at you Stranger Things!) can get lost in the details. Head Cleaner never forgets to drive the narrative forward.  One of the best scenes is when Randy gets an audio tape in the mail from himself.

    “Yes, it was definitely his voice, but decades younger. He was reciting the names of everyone he hated in high school.
    Be sure to erase this,” his voice added at the end of the list, and Randy pushed stop again.”
 
    A weird SF horror hybrid about a multiverse editing VCR is built on creepy moments like the suicide and the tape in the mail. Throughout Head Cleaner tiny moments perfectly build on each other to give that Black Mirror vibe of technological investigation. It is balanced with a Clerks or Fletch-like playfulness in the dialogue. That makes the as fun as it is weird.

The biggest LOL of the book for me: “This is your yearly reminder that ‘Panera Bread’ translates as Bread Bread.”
    “Nice this is your yearly reminder that Pantera Bread translates as motherfuckin’ Panther bread!” Randy said, then he stuck a fist in his mouth and growled his best Phil Anselmo microphone-enveloping roar. “And I know it’s blasphemy but that punch on the cover of Vulgar Display of Power is wack. Looks like he is playing Got Yer Nose.”

    Head Cleaner is full of prose that made me grin.

    “Exploring further, he found his neck under his head after all, right where he left it, and he rubbed the base of his skull to get the blood chuffing along.”

    Keaton has a knack for building humor out of little moments of weirdness, as a (PKD) Dickhead, I enjoyed this, he loved to explore slightly different universes, there is a point near the end when Randy talks about little changes in movies change all of it. Using the example of Fistful of dollars having a scene that Back to The Future III riffs on.

    Head Cleaner is a book of tiny details and large themes. Interesting characters and even more interesting concepts. An exploration of nostalgic themes threaded through the VCR of your mind like a movie about to overheat your machine. Jam-packed with ideas and entertainment book readers looking for SF horror hybrids won’t regret it.

NOTE: During my interview with the author I described this book as feeling like one of those nerdy film debates at the video store opened a wormhole and sucked the characters into a vortex inspired by weird-o 60s New Wave SF.