Book Review + Interview: Feral Detective by Jonathan Letham

 

 

The Feral Detective by Jonathan Letham

329 pages, Hardcover

Published November, 2018 by Ecco

I  It might be hard for me to write this review independently of the fact that I interviewed Jonathan at the Philip K. Dick Festival 2024, and since he is part of the small and passionate tribe of massive Dickheads, we hung out for a good part of the weekend.  

That said it is no secret that Jonathan Letham is not only a bestselling author but critically acclaimed so it is not a shocker that I enjoyed my reading experienceknew I wanted to get something signed and picked this title randomly from his catalog of books, mostly for the southern California setting. My first experience with JL was also a noir and soon I will have to check out his science fiction and surrealist work. It is a good thing I read this too, because I didn’t ask a single question about this book in the interview that you can listen to here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96-OAR-kNoY&t=3262s

The set-up of The Feral Detective properly tricked me into thinking it was just another noir detective story that moved geographically out to Chandler’s LA into the desert. Sure, all the genre tropes are serviced during the unfolding mystery, but Letham is doing a literary sleight of hand. If you want that preserved then know I think this is a five-star novel and come back after you finish and see if we agree.

“Then again, the story does involve a missing person, and it could well be me. Or you, or practically anybody. As he said to me once, who's not missing?”

Phoebe, a NYC liberal who is still stinging from the 2016 election of Trump finds herself helping to locate her neighbor’s daughter (who she had a close bond with) Arabella. She went missing in the desert in California after taking the train from college at Reed in Portland. The first act sets up the mystery, you’ll be forgiven for thinking this is the reason for the book. Arabella in her absence is actually better defined than some books pull off with their leads.

 “Arabella the young missing lady. “She trusted me. Soon I enjoyed two uncanny familial friendships, upstairs and downstairs in the same duplex. This was a kid who became vegetarian at twelve, after reading Jonathan Safran Foer’s book, and who had three posters in her room: Sleater-Kinney, Pussy Riot, and Leonard Cohen. Her sexuality was unclear, but I got the feeling the sexuality of the entire high school at St. Ann’s was unclear, so she had company.”

All these details might feel like flavor but it is important to the theme of culture clash that is at the heart of the novel.  Certain scenes like an exchange that Phoebe and Arbella have about the nature of mansplaining, and various other genres of Splaining might seem like a humorous exchange just for laughs. This detective tale has a mystery but the heart is about the culture wars.

 The day after Trump won in the liberal world there was a shock and terror that settled in. I remember telling a coworker there was no silver lining. The division that Trump created was just starting but it is clear that Letham was expressing a point, and now as we have to endure him for a third election cycle Letham sure nailed it.

 I watched him do this over the weekend with his keynote speech at the Philip K. Dick fest. He was tweaking his talk throughout the weekend, and when it came time to give his talk it was close to forty minutes of French philosophy, and little history of Science Fiction and then in the end he was telling the audience why reading Philip K. Dick helped them decode oppression. I didn’t see it coming and I certainly didn’t see the point of this novel until the third act.

The Feral Detective opens as noir, it functions as a mystery but it is an excuse to put Phoebe in the desert where the novel explores the conflict between two local off-the-grid tribes - Bears and Rabbits. The hyper-partisan tribalism is the secret agenda of the novel.

Jonathan Letham channeled his questions, anger, and frustration into a novel. I am used to seeing Science Fiction, or horror novelists do this trick. Using the noir novel as a political allegory is pretty impressive. The set-up feels grounded and real and some might find how surreal the final act gets jarring, but that is on purpose. It is a part of the journey of the novel.

The Feral Detective is sneaky great. More Letham reviews are on the way for sure. I am pretty annoyed with myself for not reading more of his work earlier.