Michael Kun's latest novel, The Locklear Letters, is a creepy little novel that delves into the banal and bizarre mind of a Sid Straw, a man locked into Middle America.
The story of Straw is told through Straw's personal letters primarily to Heather Locklear. Straw writes to Locklear first with standard obsessive fan material and later of everything in his personal life - his feelings, his desires, his first attempts at a novel. We watch Straw struggle with his self esteem, his letters growing increasingly desolate as he eventually loses his job, his house and his friends, seemingly because of his obsession with Locklear.
What's working really well for The Locklear Letters is that it's format - commonplace, boring guy writing to beautiful movie star - provides a lot of opportunity for very personalized social commentary regarding popular American media.
Kun writes in a particularly poignant passage when Straw is really down in the dumps, "if she's (Locklear) still good and decent and honest, then maybe all of these movie stars are good and decent and honest, too, because that's what I want them to be."
We watch Straw project his ideals of what makes a good person into the movie stars that have become like personal friends to him in his time of loneliness - they treat him well when his life doesn't.
A great balance is achieved though, as Straw doesn't really degenerate into this kind of speculation until he's in really bad shape. In this way, character exploration remains the focus of the book, which is good because too much social commentary could really drag this story down.
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Straw is a real character. He's the guy everyone knows who works too much, has a fake relationship with his family and who speaks appropriately to everyone. Straw is a polite, breakable guy in an impolite world and this is essentially what makes him non-functional.
We watch him go through a series of seemingly dull events that end up ruining his life.
The Locklear Letters keeps the reader wondering if Straw is crazy and obsessive or simply just a victim of circumstance. Because it's told via his personal and professional notes, we never get a feel for how he really feels about receiving copies of Spank Me! Harder! or if the restraining order is warranted. What about his phone conversations? Are there any thoughts or actions we're not hearing about in his overtly one-sided narrative?
The novel is restricted by two things - one, the limitations of first person writing, two, the reader only really gets to look at how the character wants other people to see him. Straw's letters, though often personal, are always to other people. We see his face as he presents it to the public, though occasionally, in his letters to Locklear, we see more.
Kun, who also wrote A Thousand Benjamins, will be appearing with Professor Digby Wolf and KUNM's Ron Chapman Sept. 7 at 3 p.m. at Bookworks on Rio Grande Blvd. Call 344-8139 or email bookorders@bkwrks.com for more information.
