Seven years into the life of an entrepreneur as he poetically describes his outlooks on life, death, love, friendship, the afterlife, lust, greed and the way of the sinuous dollar. Be with him as he details daily occurrences through present-tense journal entries. See it happen before your eyes, while catching a futuristically divine glimpse.
--269 Pages, 75,000+ Words
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By Benjamin Starr
Apr 21, 2009
"The Life Out Here - a review" It is not often that I'm fortunate enough to be handed a book for the first time by its author. I encountered Montetre briefly through a mutual acquaintance...I do not know him, therefore this review isn't coloured by my knowledge of the book's creator. In THE LIFE OUT HERE we have two separate books. The first book puzzles and challenges you. Little happens, beyond our introduction to the hero...or, rather, antihero; though I'm not sure either applies fully. It is filled with a distinctive, complex language that will make you wonder whether you're reading Thomas Pynchon or James Redfield. I consider myself well-read, which is why you should take me at my word when I say: You'll genuinely wonder whether you're reading the brilliant words of a genius, or the bumbling ravings of a lunatic. As our (anti)Hero? wanders about, Caulfield-like, in his world of the first book, I attempted to relate to him. I failed. But knowing the book had come from... More > such a young author, I was so puzzled as to the complexity of its language, that I held on. The second book shifts suddenly from narrative to the dramatic and continues breathlessly to the end, which, thankfully, does not resort to convention. I was left blinking, wondering where the last hundred pages had gone. By the end, our (anti)Hero? has embodied despicable scorn for the vast majority of humans, puzzlingly self-deprecating and possibly even vulnerable emotion, super-human skill and knowledge, and base, elemental weakness and fear. Complex, to say the least. Intriguing, most certainly. Montetre ends up telling a riveting story of murder and revenge that leaves absolutely no one fulfilled, neither character nor reader, yet he does so in a delectable-sort-of-way. It is surprising, puzzling, revolting, and captivating, each in turn, but rarely simultaneously. If the book had come from a seasoned novelist, I'd have tossed it with a laugh. Knowing it had come from a 21-year-old's mind left me intrigued for days. You will not regret reading to the last word of THE LIFE OUT HERE. Perhaps more than any other book I've read, you're left wondering more about the author who created it than about the book itself. We have much more to anticipate from Montetre, and I, for one, can't wait.< Less
