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review 2014-09-21 21:50
THE RECONSTRUCTIONIST by Nick Arvin

Final US CoverTHE RECONSTRUCTIONIST by Nick Arvin is an engineer’s thoughtful unfolding of the mundane: through the author’s insight and remarkable attention to detail, the story makes the ordinary extraordinary.

 

In a word, it’s a novel about accidents–an examination of choices the average reader takes for granted.

 

After this story, a car will never look the same to me. As Boggs teaches the young Ellis Barstow how to reconstruct automobile accidents with an engineer's methodical calculations, the reader learns enough about the physical forces at play on the roadway along with the fragility of the human body, in the face of those forces, to hesitate before turning the ignition.

 

Boggs also makes it clear that driving is a choice of great philosophical and moral import. A choice most of us take for granted.

 

I think about this story every time I drive. And not just about the physical danger posed by the nearby semis and texting motorists, but I approach my car now with a curiosity and a wonder I didn't know before. My car has become a manifestation of something as mystical and as concrete as consequence.

 

The story reminds us that we are not victims. That we are always making choices. Every time we choose to drive we open an algorithm of probabilities. Those probabilities are eventually actualized into the form of consequence, some of which we expect and some of which surprise us.

 

It has been said by great thinkers that all there is, that all we are, that the only explanation to anything is simply that: consequence. Every action is final and followed by a perpetuity of unforeseen, unintended consequences.

 

To turn my ignition switch is to remind myself of that. That I am consequence. That after me, consequence will continue on.

 

The narrative becomes ironic when Ellis is confronted with the accident he creates for his own life. In the end, he loses a good friend, a hard to find treasure in this world, willingly exchanging that rare friendship for a miserable romance. The reader sees it coming, that accident, and is helpless to protect him.

 

Are our own lives any different?  Aren't they usually avoidable, the wrecks we make of ourselves and the ones we love?

ArvinIn this sense, the story is about responsibility. Although I cannot control the eventualities of all my choices, I can live my life more aware of the choices I am making.

Source: www.benjamindancer.com/Blog/2014/09/22/reconstructionist-nick-arvin
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review 2014-02-01 07:37
Just Finished Reactions: In the Electric Eden: Stories by Nick Arvin
In the Electric Eden: Stories - Nick Arvin

Out of these I definitely had favorites and not so favorites. I picked the book up on a whim at my library. Overall it was okay. Nothing I would pick up again, but most of the stories made me think, if not about life then at least how many pages were left until the next one started. 

Although, my inner computer scientist does have to give props to the phrase "binary smile."

 

Originally published on GR in May 2010.

 

Progress Post:

05/20/2010 page 115 51.34% "All of these stories are kind of depressing..."

 

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review 2012-05-23 00:00
The Reconstructionist
The Reconstructionist - Nick Arvin What a cool concept. It feels like something Palahniuk might've come up with in the Lullaby or Rant days. Unfortunately, it doesn't really take flight. It isn't bad, by any means, but it's just not altogether gripping or interesting. The beginning of the book is terrific, though, and that was enough to sustain the rest of the book at a 'meh' level. It isn't good, it isn't bad. It's just a book that exists with a concept that doesn't quite match the execution. I surprisingly had a lot more to say on this theme at RB: http://wp.me/pGVzJ-oX
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review 2012-02-27 00:00
The Reconstructionist
The Reconstructionist - Nick Arvin There probably aren't very many people that can create a story dealing with the minutia involved with vehicle accident reconstruction and make it interesting. Thankfully Nick Arvin is an author that can take the mundane and often gruesome details of vehicle accident reconstruction and weave it deftly around the life of one man, Ellis Barstow.

Ellis, and his boss, John Boggs, travel around the country reconstructing motor vehicle accidents. It seems as if Ellis believes that by reconstructing other fatal motor vehicle accidents, he'll better understand his half-brother's death in a car accident. The story line becomes even more twisted when it is revealed that John Boggs has married the girlfriend of Ellis' deceased sibling. To make matters worse, Ellis has begun an affair with John's wife. After John learns of the affair, he threatens to kill himself and disappears. Ellis embarks on a journey to find him, by traveling to former accident sites, and along the way discovers truths about himself as well as what really happened with his brother’s fatal accident.

The Reconstructionist is a unique story that allows the reader to journey along with Ellis and witness his self-discovery or "reconstruction" of his life. Ellis learns that vehicle reconstruction is much easier than delving into the mysteries of his past as they impact on his future. The Reconstructionist is not a light or quick read, but it is a great story that provides quirky, yet all-too-real characters and their lives that grabs the reader’s attention from beginning to end.
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