Rudolph Wurlitzer. The Drop Edge of Yonder.(Book review)

Rudolph Wurlitzer. The Drop Edge of Yonder. Two Dollar Radio, 2008. 275 pp. Paper: $15.00.

Rudolf Wurlitzer's The Drop Edge of Yonder is a metaphysical western, with the emphasis on metaphysics. The novel is thematically invested in various belief systems: Buddhism, Mexican Indian brujo sorcery, hints of African and Native American animism. These beliefs invest the odyssey of protagonist Zebulon Shook with a deeper register of meaning than Wurlitzer's encyclopedic pastiche of Western conventions might otherwise afford. Formally, this emphasis on the spiritual aspects of Zebulon's tumultuous life and times plays out in Wurlitzer's very deft and refined use of narrative pacing. Wurlitzer moves very quickly through saloon card games ending in shootouts, gold-mining camps raided and burned, honest hands fallen on hard times, darkened San Francisco opium dens, sanctimonious and cruel prison wardens, notorious outlaws on the run across western vistas, etc. Wurlitzer's romp through these conventions is adroit, transparent and is sustained (for it never feels overblown or tired) by a deep affection for the genre, despite its seeming exhaustion. Wurlitzer plays with these ...