The Plight House, a novel by Jason Hrivnak

The orphaned questions: number three

admin — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 13:26:25 +0000

I see a man in grey standing on the wing of a decommissioned airplane. A serpent hovers in the air above him. The man tilts back his head, like a drinker of rain, and the serpent strikes him once upon each eye. The man cries out and claws at his face. When next he opens his eyes, his gaze has become luminous like that of an avenging angel. What does this vision mean?

     a.) I shall accumulate great wealth but lack the means to enjoy it.
     b.) My childhood home has burned to the ground.
     c.) I must euthanize my family, for they are infected with plague.
     d.) An adversary is worth a thousand muses.

Full comments from the Oneline Reviews

admin — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 02:08:07 +0000

“This book changed me.

What’s so great about it? Well, it left me in tears, and kept me entranced for several hours while I greedily plowed through it. It’s the most unique thing I’ve ever read, and calling it a novel somehow seems wrong. It’s not structured like a novel, it doesn’t start or end like a novel. It starts rather slowly, actually, and when I went to pass on my tattered and tearstained copy to my partner, I almost wanted to tell him not to read the Prologue. Not because it’s poorly written or anything like that, but because it’s ‘normal’, and unlike the rest of the book. It’s written with a voice that’s simple and gentle, just a man talking about a girl he used to know.

Once you’re through the Prologue and start your journey through The Plight House, there’s no turning back. Don’t read this if you have to be somewhere, if you don’t have time to just give it the undivided attention it deserves. It’s like a guided meditation, it’s like a lucid dream primer, and it’s like a nightmare.

And it’s wonderful. Hrivnak has such a beautiful command of the language, and is undeterred in his creation of The Plight House. Some passages cause you to sink, like entering the ocean with your clothes on. Others are hopeful and uplifting, carrying the reader to heights of imagination and love. This book requires your cerebral and spiritual participation. Once you’ve read it, you will want to give it to anyone you love. Simply flawless.”

— THE ONELINE REVIEWS

the Oneline Reviews >

The orphaned questions: number two

admin — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 04:33:50 +0000

You are a character in a dream of mine. Together we wander the halls of a crumbling, labyrinthine mansion. In the course of our journey, we discover that we have a common desire to inflict great violence upon the fabric of our times, to distill our lives into a single act of harrowing, eloquent savagery. As we begin to plan out the operational details of a shared offense, we become separated and you find yourself alone in the attic, surrounded by old brushes and half-used cans of paint. Like all dreamers, I have a terrible memory. What can you write or draw upon the walls to recall to me our conversation and the promises made therein?

The orphaned questions: number one

admin — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 21:11:36 +0000

Walking home from a gathering of friends, I am confronted by a stray dog. The dog is highly agitated and barks madly in all directions, like a thing beset. I speak to it in soothing tones and approach with great caution, but as I reach out to examine its collar, the dog coughs up onto the sidewalk a severed human hand. What is the dog’s name?

     a.) Glover.
     b.) Vortex.
     c.) Butchermouth.
     d.) Bathory.

The Plight House on the Oneline Review website

admin — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 08:02:43 +0000

“The writing unlikely & unique, bizarre with soft exposure strangeness, a zenith of literary bliss; Can-Lit is changed.”

— THE ONELINE REVIEWS

the Oneline Reviews >

“Inspiration for the rest of us”

admin — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 07:18:50 +0000

Blogger Carrie Carm has included The Plight House in her Monday column, Inspiration for the rest of us.

“This week’s inspiration is grief and strange beauty: Jason Hrivnak’s The Plight House, a stunning, deadly book. It’s just so sad and odd and gorgeous.

It is even pleasing as a physical object, all by itself. Published by Pedlar Press out of Toronto and with cover art by Tom Poirier — the book’s official website banner shows it off — it has high-quality, laid paper (with visible chain lines), and the layout of the book leaves plenty of negative space: a book design success.

The content itself is divine.”

— CARRIE CARM

carriecarm >

The Plight House shortlisted for a ReLit Award

admin — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 03:57:01 +0000

The ReLit Awards, now in their tenth year, recognize works published by Canada’s independent presses. Winners will be announced on October 20th at the Ottawa International Writers Festival.

The ReLit website >

Dennis Cooper ♥ The Plight House

admin — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 03:22:21 +0000

Dennis Cooper, author of transgressive classics Closer and Frisk, has included The Plight House (alongside works by Jean-Christophe Valtat and Pascal Quignard) in his recent blog entry “Three books I read recently and loved”.

theweaklings >

The Plight House featured at Blackberry Books

admin — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 05:55:08 +0000

“With this novel, Jason Hrivnak will reach inside you and pull your heart out. The unnamed narrator takes us on a deeply personal journey after learning of the suicide of his childhood best friend. This doesn’t read like a typical novel and therein lies its strength — Hrivnak doesn’t follow conventions of style or narrative and this allows him to reach new depths and heights of despair, hope, passion and pain.”

— MARY-ANN

Blackberry Books >

Globe and Mail review

admin — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 05:54:42 +0000

“Hrivnak succinctly posits a triple-barrelled theme: grief bound tightly with innocence and guilt … [He] is an elegant and often incisive prose stylist, skilled at image-making and intent on exploring difficult questions of personal and societal responsibility.”

— JIM BARTLEY