| Author | Tito Perdue |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Nine-Banded Books |
Publication date | 17 August 2011 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Pages | 258 |
| ISBN | 9781616583514 |
The Node is a 2011 novel by the American writer Tito Perdue. It was published by Nine-Banded Books.
Plot
[edit]As the novel's editor describes it, in a future where "everything that could have gone wrong has gone wrong" (environmental catastrophe, social degeneration, rampant crime and the mechanization of human life) "ethnic enclaves … vie for the last remnants of power." The protagonist leads "a fractious retinue of co-ethnic subversives (the maligned 'Cauks') to establish a stronghold, a redoubt, a community, a last ditch … a Node."[1]
Reception
[edit]While Jarno Ålander, in Sarastus, praises the book's satirical potential, he finds that Perdue is "tripped up by his own wit": his "sprawling" style betrays a "lack of control" on the author's part.[2] However, for Derek Turner in the Quarterly Review, "There is joy and proportion in the author's references, store of words, manipulation of images, jumbling of tenses and senses, in-jokes, his verbal and even typographical games."[3]
Don Noble reads The Node as a "conservative, libertarian, even reactionary" satire against "political correctness, globalism, and the rage for celebrity, diversity and leveling" likely to appeal to "the like-minded" rather than "a wide readership."[4][5]
In Chronicles, Turner notes that The Node represents a break in Perdue's oeuvre, turning away from mainstream publishing and towards small presses.[6] In Thymos Magazin, Sven Müller numbers it, with the later Reuben (2014), among Perdue's political novels, contrasting with the earlier Lee Pefley books (Lee, The New Austerities, Fields of Asphodel, etc.).[7]
References
[edit]- ^ Chip Smith, "Tito Perdue's THE NODE," The Hoover Hog (5 November 2011).
- ^ Jarno Ålander, "Tulevaisuudessa ei ole mitään hauskaa," Sarastus (20 May 2014).
- ^ Derek Turner, "Anatomies of Future Melancholy," Quarterly Review (Spring 2012).
- ^ Don Noble, "Author takes us to a strange world," Tuscaloosa News (29 July 2012).
- ^ Don Noble, "The Node," apr.com (15 August 2012) (accessed 25 May 2025).
- ^ Derek Turner, "Early Promise," Chronicles (February 2014).
- ^ Sven Müller, "Tito Perdue – Schriftsteller in Zeiten des Niedergangs," Thymos Magazin (10 October 2023).