Author: Jackie Ess
Publisher: Divided
Paperback
Burley Fisher Books of the Year 2025
Enya says… Jackie Ess’ novel Darryl is hilarious and bizarre, one of my favourite reads of this year. Set in the bohemian town of Eugene, Oregon, this novel follows Darryl, a man whose identity is firmly based around the fact that other men fuck his wife while he watches. Darryl has very little else to do, living comfortably of an inheritance (which the people around him seem to abuse), other than to fixate upon his own desires, his identity as a man, and upon his existence in general. He flits across different states and identities – sexual states, drug induced states, meditative states – and overly identifies with them in a state of magical thinking as quickly as he abandons them. Although often a depiction of a rather sad man, he can be strangely insightful and offer a poignant window into the searching quest of life’s meaning that we all often seek. Would say it’s comparable to My Year of Rest and Relaxation, though much more weird, political and queer.