MAJOR ARCANA

The kids are not all right—but neither, to be clear, are the adults.

In a place known only as “Steel City,” first-year student Jacob Morrow shoots himself through the right eye on his university’s campus. His friend Ash del Greco, an unusual and nihilistic junior whose face bears a spiral scar, films the act. Both are enrolled in Studies in the Graphic Novel, a class taught by Simon Magnus, author of “those insane comic books with the sodomy and the exploding fetuses and whatnot” and “the first member of the English faculty to declare publicly…that Simon Magnus was party to no gender and would henceforward use ‘they/them’ pronouns” before denouncing personal pronouns altogether. Over the course of one summer, about 20 years prior, Simon Magnus wrote the comic Overman 3000 in the company of Marco Cohen, the comic’s artist; Ellen Chandler, Simon Magnus’ editor at VC Comics and romantic partner; and Diane del Greco, Marco Cohen’s wife (who will later be Ash’s mother), an occasion that brings profound career and personal consequences. Pistelli eschews linear storytelling to describe these characters and others—including Jacob Morrow’s grieving mother, Jessica, and a close friend with whom Ash del Greco embarks on a tumultuous exploration of gender in high school—at different points in their lives, charting interconnections that will eventually lead back to the circumstances of Jacob Morrow’s noteworthy suicide. In addition to writing with a stylistically heavy hand (all characters are almost exclusively referred to by both their first and last names, for example), the author doles out extensive digressions and critiques, often satirical in their exaggeration, about a wide range of hot-button topics: In addition to gender, there’s political correctness, tarot, suicidal ideation, and advancing technology, to name a few. This unrelenting approach will undoubtedly alienate some readers, but others will be enthralled. Pistelli pulls off a few notable narrative surprises along the way, too.

A rich and enriching novel, for readers who persist through its challenges.