Anna James
Demolition Job
The Road to Vermillion Lake
By Vic Cavalli
Harvard Square Editions 244pp $22.95 order from our bookshop
The Road to Vermilion Lake careens from the tedious to the absurd en route to a finale where an orgasm causes a geological fissure, forcing the couple responsible to move to a Hawaiian island. It aims to be a postmodern fever dream exploring the human condition, but it turns into a masturbatory fantasy where nothing is said that could not be expressed with 50 per cent fewer adjectives.
At the centre of the book is Tom, a man who cannot see a woman without describing her breasts in detail. He is working as a blaster’s helper and first-aid attendant on a project finding a passage to the titular Vermilion Lake, an idyllic heart-shaped paradise. The boundaries of credibility
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