Beginner's Luke: Book I of the Beginner's Luke Series

Sol Luckman
Crow Rising Transformational Media (2007)
ISBN 0615140351
Reviewed by Thomas Gabrielli for Reader Views (5/07)

Luke Soloman’s chronicles of starting a new life--backwards--begins as a beggar in New Age City, where everything is almost perfect. Perfect, except for his new career; the residents of this town are frugal when it comes to charity. To escape, he passes through a brick wall and lands in Perver City, where he joins a group of people known as The Folarians. (You’ll have to go with me on this one, please.)  After being busted by a licorice twist, he takes up with a vagrant known as Blue, who he stays with until Blue decides it’s time for Luke to move on. When he leaves Blue, he ends up back in college as an eighteen-year-old, where he meets an assortment of still stranger characters.

Okay, so maybe the synopsis in the above paragraph isn’t really “selling” this novel quite the way it should. Trust me on this one: this is a very unique and entertaining read. Think modern-day “Alice in Wonderland,” where anything can come alive when you start with a blank page. The author, Sol Luckman, warns from the very beginning that as a writer, he can do whatever he wants with his characters or the storyline. And he substantiates that feat throughout the novel. He needs a new character for a plot point? Poof! He invents one. I half expected him to give Luke wings and have him fly.

This book to a conventional novel is what an animated film is to a documentary. It is creative, imaginative, humorous and very distinctive. Sol Luckman’s character, Luke Soloman (notice the similarities in names?) could be described as the author’s inventive alter-ego. Yet all the time, the author makes the reader aware that he is in control here. He steps out from behind his craft to announce twist in the plot, or new character development. Think the final chapter of Armistead Maupin’s “The Night Listener.”

However, while the novel meanders to over-the-top places and possibilities, this reader found himself asking, “So, what’s the point?” Perhaps to show the reader that as individuals, we, too, have choices and potentials. There are no boundaries or rules to limit us. If this was the lesson in Book I of this six-part series, then I can’t wait for my next one. Or, if I have totally missed the point, if indeed there is one here, I need to read the next installment.

I recommend “Beginner’s Luke” for Luckman’s sheer brazenness in stepping out of the box and ending up somewhere out in the stratosphere. This is a good place for the reader to go, where, like me, there is a curiosity about where else Luckman will take us the next time around. Just think of the possibilities!

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