The Thing In Packy Innard's Place

David Omer Beardens last piece of writing was his magnum opus. The Thing in Packy Innards Place - is an innovative novel of adroit storytelling. A picaresque? A satire? A work of high-fantasy? A dystopian fiction infused with aspects of the quotidian? It exhibits all of these elements yet remains a hard book to classify.Bearden who for much of his life worked outside the conventional literary status quo has produced a fey tale based upon his final years spent living in Scranton Pennsylvania. After his life in the limelight as a widely-traveled poet and musician he settled into the closed and shuttered city of Awoken. Whether schmoozing at a local Irish bar or redemptively working as the night manager and caretaker for a homeless shelter - he is a close observer of both scenes. As for the city of Scranton itself he poetically describes its people its architecture and its natural setting with precise detail intelligent wit surrealist imagery and inventive lingo.Stylistic comparisons in the book can be made to James Joyces logophilia Philip Lamantias surrealist poetry and Vladimir Nabokovs elaborately long sentences. Beardens own love for vocabulary while coupled with his use of everyday spoken language are on display throughout The Thing In Packy Innards Place. He handles words by their roots - to be pushed pulled chopped re-ordered re-invented and expanded into new ideating forms.davidbearden.com