Avant Management
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Copyright 2007 by Avant Management, LLC. All rights reserved.
Here's what people are saying about "Wanderlost":
“The journey takes the reader not just through prevocative descriptions of
the changing landscape, but through the highly charged and personal
musings of a young writer as he grapples with which direction he wants to
go. Gritty and at times graphically intense, it is also a witty, insightful and
humorous exploration of how to balance freedom with obligation and what
it means to be a young American in the 21st century.”
--Sandpoint Reader--
“In the same vein of Jack Kerouac and Hunter S. Thompson, here is a writer
howling at the American landscape and destined to become an American
writer of significance. The torch has been passed…”
--Nate Jordon--
Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poets
“PLEASE buy this book – get this fucking guy off my couch!”
--Marisa Fenarjian--
Allows Olson to Sleep on Her Couch
“This man will not live to see 30… It’s a new movement, a movement like I’
ve never seen before… art for bums… Ignore his hard drinking, his distorted
politics and his hair-brained theories, his utter grimness, his cathartic
experiences, his constant cycling between satori and ennui and go straight
to the humanness of his work, wherein Max, this uncommon common man,
makes common mistakes in a messy world.”
--Erin Brannigan--
Former Professional Racquetball Player
Art Thief, Master of Bullshit
An Ordinary Man Himself
"Never heard of it."
--Gas Station Attendant--
Chevron - San Francisco, CA
* * *
Ben Olson Author of "Wanderlost" BOOK DESCRIPTION : “Wanderlost” was written on the go, during a month-long train trip Ben Olson took around America. Max Manchester is a 25-year-old anti-hero languishing in poverty, struggling to make it as a writer and suffering from the disenchantment that characterizes post-collegiate life; searching for the soul and substance he feels lacking in his generation. Surrounded by alcoholic pseudo-intellectuals and other members of the “Non-Generation,” Max’s life is spinning out of control. His nights are spent in a drunken blur of barroom philosophy, half-felt sexual encounters and stunted attempts at art. His days consist of butting against the rampant crass pop culture and the world defined by catch-phrase ideology and morally bankrupt politicians waging pointless wars. Finally, one desolate north Idaho winter, as Max’s mailbox slowly fills with rejection slips and he nurses yet another hangover, he’s overcome by a feeling of entrapment. Haunted by fears that his life is wasting away and lured by dreams of one day understanding, he decides to break with the comfort of his home and re-discover a sense of meaning. He escapes. With an Amtrak USA Rail Pass and a pack on his back, Max sets out to find America again, armed with the bitterness of his past and the yearning to find something pure again. He travels around the country, stopping and going from the train as he pleased, hitchhiking and sharing rides with drug runners, gigolos and other strangers of the American road. “Wanderlost” captures the essence of that strange period of life after college and before looming adulthood; when idealism is still a good thing, when one must choose to embrace the often mediocre task of mundane existence, or burn free and live according to the principles of our hearts. It is a coming-of-age tale, a humorous road narrative and an acerbically accurate portrayal of modern America Life in all its beauty and futility, written in a personal uninhibited style of journalistic prose. AUTHOR COMMENTS: This book evolved from years of struggle. Years of gut-wrenching poverty. Years of butting my head against the walls of the mediocre art. For too long I've seen my society, the "greatest society," deflating and dumbing down the masses to fools. I wondered if it was still possible to write a great novel. And if so, was there anyone left to read it? This is not a great novel - it will never be on any best-seller lists. Oprah won't select it for her book club. I don't want her to. I didn't write this for them. I wrote this for the Others of the world - the ones who will never fit into the American version of what's "good" (i.e. what sells). This is a truthful account of a common man's life in a dirty, exploding, apathetic world, and that is why it has merit. I believe in something that will never die - the notion that you can live free in America, and do whatever you want between the poles. Write obscene words, drink whiskey, sleep with loose women, drive fast on the wrong side of the road, stay up til dawn doing cheap drugs, piss on streetcorners, throw rocks through real estate windows, fall in love with ghosts... I live how I want to live, I capture the moments I want to capture, and I know it is Art. I know it is Truth. I am just like you, and I'm so confused. I was born in the wrong era. I should be a pirate of a rum-runner or a goddamn Roman gladiator. Instead I'm just a dipshit among dipshits. A bum inside the gates. I'm just a poor bastard who has read too many great novels and has rejected the American Dream... it means nothing to me now. Who the hell wants to raise a family and get a real job and punch a clock 50 weeks a year? Not me. It's just futile effort and early death. I know I'm full of shit. I know I have my head up my ass, and I know you do too. So be it. There's a literary Renaissance occurring now - people are tired of reading and watching and listening to empty confection. This is my attempt at something real. I didn't write it to make money or become famous... I wrote it because I had to. I wrote it for you. Enjoy it. I'll be dead soon. "WANDERLOST"/BEN's MYSPACE |
AUTHOR BIO:
Ben Olson was born and raised in North Idaho, in a small
mountain town of hillbillies, realtors and hippies. He wrote
“Wanderlost” in 37 days, when he was 25 years old.
He has worked as a dishwasher, busboy, bar-tender, department
store clerk, gas station clerk, golf pro, photographer, journalist,
reclaimed lumber specialist, researcher, production assistant,
producer, boat captain, propane filler, and finally, author.
Ironically, he enjoys the latter occupation the most, probably
because it pays the least of all.
After dropping out of Colorado State University in his third
semester, escaping the “institutional hand,” he fled to Los Angeles,
home of the Weird, to search for fortune. Instead, he lived for three
years in disrepute, working as a low-level production assistant on
television commercials and eventually documentary films. He
recently worked as a research assistant on the Academy Award
winning, “An Inconvenient Truth,” and was Time Magazine’s
“Person of the Year” in 2006. In 2004, Olson was hired to produce
a fine art photography book by photographer Mark Story called
“Living in Three Centuries,” a book of portraits of the oldest people
in the world. For a whole year, he wandered around America
searching for “super centenarians” (people over 110 years old)
from California to Georgia. During the scouting, Olson took
constant notes on the American People, as well as his evolving self,
and began formulating the idea to write a novel.
He is also an inveterate traveler; a sailor of Caribbean Seas, a
tsunami relief volunteer in Thailand (where he was nearly killed
by a charging water buffalo), a hitchhiker down the rural
highways dying in the West, a backpacker through canyons of
southern Utah, and a roman candle shooter at drunks in the
streets of downtown Seattle.
Olson writes occasionally for The Sandpoint Reader, which his
friend and illustrator Zach Hagadone co-owns and publishers. He
has been rejected by some of the best publications in the world. He
used to live in a small cabin by the lake, but was recently evicted
for non-payment of rent and is currently roaming around
America without a cent in his pocket, trying to figure out what
the hell to do next.
Ben Olson was born and raised in North Idaho, in a small
mountain town of hillbillies, realtors and hippies. He wrote
“Wanderlost” in 37 days, when he was 25 years old.
He has worked as a dishwasher, busboy, bar-tender, department
store clerk, gas station clerk, golf pro, photographer, journalist,
reclaimed lumber specialist, researcher, production assistant,
producer, boat captain, propane filler, and finally, author.
Ironically, he enjoys the latter occupation the most, probably
because it pays the least of all.
After dropping out of Colorado State University in his third
semester, escaping the “institutional hand,” he fled to Los Angeles,
home of the Weird, to search for fortune. Instead, he lived for three
years in disrepute, working as a low-level production assistant on
television commercials and eventually documentary films. He
recently worked as a research assistant on the Academy Award
winning, “An Inconvenient Truth,” and was Time Magazine’s
“Person of the Year” in 2006. In 2004, Olson was hired to produce
a fine art photography book by photographer Mark Story called
“Living in Three Centuries,” a book of portraits of the oldest people
in the world. For a whole year, he wandered around America
searching for “super centenarians” (people over 110 years old)
from California to Georgia. During the scouting, Olson took
constant notes on the American People, as well as his evolving self,
and began formulating the idea to write a novel.
He is also an inveterate traveler; a sailor of Caribbean Seas, a
tsunami relief volunteer in Thailand (where he was nearly killed
by a charging water buffalo), a hitchhiker down the rural
highways dying in the West, a backpacker through canyons of
southern Utah, and a roman candle shooter at drunks in the
streets of downtown Seattle.
Olson writes occasionally for The Sandpoint Reader, which his
friend and illustrator Zach Hagadone co-owns and publishers. He
has been rejected by some of the best publications in the world. He
used to live in a small cabin by the lake, but was recently evicted
for non-payment of rent and is currently roaming around
America without a cent in his pocket, trying to figure out what
the hell to do next.
Illustration by Zach Hagadone
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