Most authors are happy to be asked what their book is about. To me, this is a terrifying question, just like a few other seemingly simple questions: what is your profession, your nationality, your religion, your political affiliation? For those people who have a simple one word answer to each of these questions, summarizing what their novel is about can be accomplished in a paragraph.

For me, it is a trap fraught with pitfalls. If I tell you Vacuum County is a story about a college girl who gets falsely accused of DWI by a sheriff she spurned while driving down a lonely stretch of road in an obscure Texas county and who ends up trapped there against her will, eventually being reduced to the role of a slut, would this be true? Well, yes, in terms of a part of the plot structure, it would be. But if you really wanted to know what kind of novel this is, it would be a complete and total lie. Somebody who bought the book thinking it would be a titillating, mindless romp would be sorely disappointed.

If I told you that this a literary narrative, in which divergent points of view are contrasted and that it’s an exercise in polyphony, would this be true? Yes, it would be, but most people who are looking for that kind of book will not be happy with Vacuum County, for a number of reasons. For one thing, literary has been taken as the equivalent of “liberal”, and so everybody knows what basic kinds of issues and ideas can be explored in a literary work, and which cannot. Also, if the plot and theme are too well integrated, literary critics might be offended by the facile structure of the narrative. In real life, and in naturalist fiction, nothing works quite like that, and it is just as bad as having poems that really scan to have a plot with regular plot points that builds up to a climax and then releases. “How very phallo-centric of you!” they would sneer.

Okay, so maybe neither of these characterizations are the way to go with this book. Maybe I should just say:”It’s a book about a cattle rancher who gets audited by the IRS.” But then people would just give me a blank look, because I don’t think there is any stereotypical genre that this particular subplot brings to mind.

Which brings us to the issue of genre.

I have written about genre before. Here is the link:

The Problem of Genre

The real issue to me is why anybody would even be concerned with genre. It’s a lot like asking the author to tell you what ingredients he put in the literary pie that he baked, in case you are allergic to some of them.

I like reading all kinds of books, myself. I like detective novels, like those about Donald Lam, and I like science fiction, like Podkayne of Mars. I’ll read an occasional romance, like The Scarlet Letter or Wuthering Heights. No topic is beneath me. The only thing I care about is whether it’s a good book.

But some people seem to say that they want genre books, not for what’s in them, but for the elements they don’t want to find there. They seem to say: “I want mystery but not intellectualism.” “I want intellectualism, but no unexpected conclusions.” “I want a little bit of romance, but nothing that would challenge my views of what is romantic”.

For instance, is Vacuum County a mystery? someone might ask. And I could answer truthfully that it is. The mystery in this novel is why it’s called “Vacuum County”. It is a cultural and linguistic mystery. And you might be thinking, “Oh I know that kind of mystery. It’s one of those semiotic books, like The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco.” But you’d be wrong. Eco’s book is a historical murder mystery set in a monastery. But all the murders in Vacuum County are solved right from the start. We always know who did it. The mystery is history itself, and how the words came to be the way they are. Is there a genre like that?

Some people buy mysteries, because they are promised that they are allowed to think about a certain level of puzzle, while feeling free to take the entire rest of their known universe as a given. It’s not mysteries that they are hankering for, but a safe universe where everything is in its place, except for one stray murder.

Some people buy science fiction, not so they can consider some advanced scientific theory, but so that they can contemplate saving the universe as we know it from evil forces, without having to make any commitment in their minds as to what evil forces are operating amongst us in our society even as we speak.

Some people like books in which good and evil are easy to recognize, or, alternatively, they like thoughtful books that are well-crafted but ultimately lead to no conclusions.Vacuum County is not that kind of book.

I can’t really promise the reader that he’ll get exactly the same pie he was expecting to get by labeling the pie as lemon meringue, but in the interest of full disclosure, I will fess up and tell you what some of the ingredients are that you are getting when you read Vacuum County.

10% Biblical Story

Vacuum County is a reworking of a Biblical story whose most important components are found in the first book of Samuel, Chapter 25. It is not a straightforward retelling, but rather uses the characters and situations presented there as a springboard for a “what if” story. What if Nabal hadn’t mysteriously died, freeing Abigail to bestow all her property and herself on David? What would have happened to the kingdom of Israel then?

20% local and Federal government

Vacuum County is a story of local government in an out of the way county in the Great State of Texas. It is about the way in which ordinary people interact with their elected officials. It is about the heavy price paid by outsiders who don’t live by the rules. It is about what can happen to the quiet life of the entire county, when the long arm of the Federal government is called in to settle a local power struggle.

30% Cultural Legacy of Spanish Explorers

Vacuum County is about the cultural legacy of the Spanish explorers who first arrive in Texas. It is about Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, his very real historic life, his fictional descendants, and his not-so-fictional — but unautheticated — ancestors. In the process, we get to know about the Carthaginians who explored the Iberian peninsula, when that was a brave new frontier.

40% social interaction across socio-economic, cultural and personality types

Vacuum County explores how people interact across social boundaries of class, education, language and culture. Moral judgments cast by one party on another are reversed and reworked , as the context of each individual reveals a different set of behavioral expectations.

Who Vacuum County is for

Who is Vacuum County not for?