Forty Days of Fire, Forty Days of Rain - A Book Review

By Erin O'Riordan
Remember the old bumper sticker that read, "Children are to be seen, and heard, and believed?" The theme of Forty Days of Fire, Forty Days of Rain by Douglas McDaniel could be described as, "The world is to be seen, and heard, and believed."

Forty Days is neither fish nor fowl, neither political commentary nor poetry, but a semi-autobiographical blend of the two--and more--in classic Beat style. Beat, as in the style of mid-twentieth-century beatniks, as in Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and Anne Waldman. This may seem a strange approach to a book subtitled "A living novel and borderline blog during the Bush years," but it works for McDaniel. (If you've not yet been introduced to the Beat style of writing, you must experience it. Like jazz, it's a unique window into the American soul.)

McDaniel describes the book thus: "...this extended narrative doesn't dwell much on why such statements are true or prophetic. The chaotic swirls of observation, metaphor and paranoid theory, mixed in a somewhat linear manner and intensified by hyperlink, myth and caffeine-induced overdrive." In the caffeinated mix are ruminations on William Blake, lost dogs, global warming, technology, the death of print journalism (all journalism, really, as McDaniel contends) and the salamander man who lives under the bed. The end result is a sort of twenty-first century Walden with Freudian puns.

Douglas McDaniel has authored the Mythville blog since 2004, sharing poetry and observations like those collected in Forty Days. He also edits the American Mythville Literary Review and has written more than ten other volumes, including Ginsberg Rolls Over, William Blake in Cyberspace, and Godz, Cars and Cannon.

You have no excuse not to read Forty Days of Fire, Forty Days of Rain, since McDaniel is giving the e-book away for free, and gives written permission for the book to be copied and shared with other readers. Contact him through his blog, on MySpace or on FaceBook.