Tours of the Black Clock
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| Author | Steve Erickson |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Avantpop |
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Publication date
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1989 |
| Preceded by | Rubicon Beach |
| Followed by | Arc d'X |
Tours of the Black Clock is the third novel by Steve Erickson, published in 1989. It has been translated into French, Spanish, Dutch and Japanese. The narrative concerns itself with two of the most influential figures of the 20th century, as Adolf Hitler appears as an important character, and allusions are made to Albert Einstein and the theory of relativity. The novel was cited as one of the year's best by the Village Voice and the New York Times Book Review and is included on Larry McCaffery's list of the 20th Century’s Greatest Hits: 100 English-Language Books of Fiction.
The novel follows a seemingly relativistic plot, where time and space disappear as absolutes. The first part concerns Marc, the son of a small-town prostitute who becomes the boatman, ferrying tourists from the mainland to Davenhall, the small island in the river where he grew up. Marc leaves town the night he sees a strange man die at his mother's feet, and spends fifteen years on the boat, never setting foot in town, until one day, when he meets a girl in a blue dress, who never returns with the other tourists. Marc goes onto the island to look for her, and sees his mother. Their meeting conjures up the ghost of the man who died fifteen years before, and his story takes over the novel.
The ghost tells his story in first person. His name was Banning Jainlight, and he begins by recounting his birth. He has the ability to look through the windows of his bedroom and see his time, as if looking at the Zeitgeist. After killing a brother and burning down the ranch house where he grew up, Jainlight moves to a city, where he becomes the writer of pornographic stories. These stories are eventually being bought by a single customer, an eccentric German named Client X, Josef Goebells.
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