Days Between Stations (novel)
First edition cover
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| Author | Steve Erickson |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Simon & Schuster |
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Publication date
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April 12, 1985 |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
| Pages | 253 (first edition, hardback) |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 11532077 |
| 813/.54 19 | |
| LC Class | PS3555.R47 D3 1985 |
| Followed by | Rubicon Beach |
Days Between Stations is the first novel by Steve Erickson. Upon publication in 1985 it received notable praise from Thomas Pynchon and has been cited as an influence by novelists such as Jonathan Lethem and Mark Z. Danielewski. It has been translated into French, Spanish, Italian, Russian and Japanese. Several stories intersect in this novel: Lauren and Jason's unhappy marriage, Lauren's love affair with Adrien-Michel, and a lost silent film titled The Death of Marat.
Lauren falls in love with Jason as a girl, living in the Kansas fields, but when they move to San Francisco and later Los Angeles, she learns that they have much different ideas about how to be in love. Jason is a cyclist, training for the Olympics, and when he is away, as he is frequently, he sleeps with other women, many of whom call Lauren, and Jason asks her to brush them off. Although they have a son, Lauren enters a dissociative fugue one night, and blames herself when their child later dies.
In Los Angeles, they meet a mysterious man, with an amnesia of his own, who calls himself either Adrien or Michel, depending on which eye he covers with an eyepatch. He believes he sees differently from his two eyes, much to the consternation of his uncle, a film producer in Hollywood. Although never explicitly stated, Lauren and Adrien-Michel met before, when he raped her while she was lost in the fugue state. Adrien-Michel eventually falls in love with Lauren, and saves her from the sandstorms that engulf Los Angeles. The two travel to Europe, where Jason is set to compete in a bicycle race in Venice.
The focus then shifts to tell the story behind The Death of Marat, and the story of its director, Adolphe Sarre. Adolphe was born with a twin, although the two were separated at birth, and Adolphe was raised by his adoptive mother, a prostitute, in a secret room inside her brothel. Eventually, his adoptive mother gives birth to a daughter, who Adolphe falls in love with. He eventually must leave the brothel when he is discovered by the owner's son, and Adolphe tries to kill him by throwing him out the window.
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