Episodes from the Life of Gideon Millwater

In Episodes from the Life of Gideon Millwater, Ryan Layne Whitney (author of The Primal Shrug) has concocted an extravagant fantasy: the works and life of the composer Gideon Flavius Millwater. In prose as elaborate and detailed as the compositions of Millwater themselves, the Ten Symphonies, the opera Juliette, the Punk and Circumcision Marches, among others, are all described with lurid flair and a delight in the bizarre and eccentric. Millwater’s style of living (and he lived to be 109), as well as his death and memorial celebrations, match that of his music: uncompromising, scandalous, energetic, and witty. If Millwater himself did not actually exist, we can only hope (or fear?) that someone may one day take up the challenge to use this little work as a example for emulation — if they dare!