KING JOHN by Edmond Manning

4 STARS

"I don’t know what the fuck is happening anymore. But I am catching on.”

That is a King Weekend in a nutshell. Can't be explained, must be experienced. But don't be fooled, this isn't some half-assed adventure. To paraphrase Ingmar Bergman, only someone who is well prepared is able to improvise.

Vin has kinging down, but he's got a tough nut to crack this time. Manning lets you laugh freely and then steals your breath away. Like goofing around when you careen into a table and all you see in that split second is that you can't fix it... and the CRASH!

Alistair's secret, what can I say, we all have fears and this taps into the unfixable and rings my major interpersonal bell--shit. 

Manning knows the beauty and importance in touch. The reverence and care, the love that whispers across another's skin--that acknowledges another wordlessly. An acceptance which we all crave and Vin gives so freely. Not that there aren't challenges with every kinging, but Vin is scrambling harder than ever.

Alistair and Vin are a bit



And shit goes all kinds of sideways. 

Talk about utterly frustrating, at least The Dread Pirate Roberts knocked people unconscious and moved on, unfortunately, that's not an option here. Of all the king stories, this one actually took me beyond being displeased and bordering incensed. Vin, I'm on my fucking knees.

“I love you like fire”

When you allow someone else to own your song nothing else matters. Inside, like a seashell to the ear we all have the harmony, a rhythm coursing through our cells and blood--you can't let someone else conduct that. You can't.

And even here, my love of Moby Dick finds a way, or maybe I find a way of seeking it out:

With La Contessa chasing the white whale bus around the desert all week, an accident seems not only possible but probable.

The setting is so omnipresent, a character itself. Stark and unforgiving, but awe-inspiring and the night sky absent civilization is tremendous. We dampen it with our creations to make ourselves larger, and the desert is much like the middle of ocean at night--it's like space. You have no way to register yourself, so you float in nothingness. 

Words to live by: 

To stop filtering through someone else’s reality and find our own.

I hate these stories because they hit too close, like a bone bruise no one can see. But, BUT... I love these stories for Vin's reckless abandon and sacrifice. There's an exquisite life affirming intimacy in these pages that make me hope. Even though the ending devastated me, utterly and completely. And that's why it's four stars and not five.

Overall, a king rises during the Dionysian fervency of Burning Man.