World Out There eBook

The World Out There is set in Gainesville, FL during the early nineteen-nineties and its North-Central Florida setting is important as both physical and psychological space. In addition to Spanish moss, heat-radiating highways, and palmettos, the novel explores the violence beneath the glittering surface of the Sunshine State: racial tensions, neofascist violence against others, and a string of serial murders acts as an ominous backdrop for the action. The car wreck into Lake Walters, coming within the first pages, is a catalyst for actionthe concentric waves radiating from the car dropping through that lake surface like danger reverberating throughout the book. The story follows the lives of three peopleJan, William, and Raywith the action centered around a used bookstore. Each of these Gen-Xers came to Gainesville to get college degrees and then never left. Each watches his or her grandiose ideas of success drift away as they pass through their thirties, replaced with a vagueness of purpose, a nagging anxiety that there is something else theyre supposed to be doing.