Succession
Succession is a new novel by Harper Prize winner Herb Lobsenz. An edgy novel about life, love, and the pursuit of something more—could it be happiness?
Take a look around, read an excerpt from Succession, check out Herb’s blog—and feel free to contact Herb or leave a comment.
An Excerpt from Succession:
At six-fifteen, the half-shepherd, half-Lab that belonged to the janitor of the building across the street came out for his early morning tour. Garrison watched him trot, stop, sniff, mark, return to the front of his building, look right toward Lexington, left toward the East River, and thump down on his belly, front paws extended, jaw on paws. Each morning, he sat at the window in the disused nursery, and he and the dog watched the early risers hurry toward Lexington to walk that tightrope said to lead to the center of the universe.
Like his father before him he’d learned the tightrope led not to the center of the universe, but across a sea of sulfuric acid that drained into a dense black hole. Seemingly random squalls blew up that made the rope shake and sway beneath the feet, and kicking their heels and howling, or stoic and silent in maximum-dignity pike position, everyone on it—the early risers along with the late, the righteous along with the wicked—toppled off, dissolved in the acid sea and got sucked into the dense black hole.
He and his father accepted all that and went doggedly about what they’d chosen to do. But the early-risers avoided looking down. They pretended the rising fumes didn’t sting their nostrils. They denied the acid sea, denied the dense black hole; they even denied the wanton gods who’d dug it.
>> READ ABOUT HERB'S PREVIOUS NOVEL: Vangel Griffith