IN & OZ

Steve Tomasula is a novelist like no other; his experiments in narrative and design have won him a loyal following. Exemplifying Tomasula's style, "IN & OZ" is a heady, avant-garde book, rooted in convincing characters even as it simultaneously subverts the genre of the novel and moves it forward. "IN & OZ" is a novel of art, love, and auto mechanics. The story follows five different characters - an auto designer, photographer, musical composer, poet/sculptor, and mechanic - who live in two very different places: IN, a back-alley here and now; and OZ, which reflects the desire for somewhere better. The men and women who populate Tomasula's landscape desperately hope to fill a void in their lives through a variety of media: music, language, dirt, light, and automobiles. As the plot moves forward, the story of the residents of IN and that of their counterparts in OZ converge. A fanciful allegory that tackles class relations, art, commerce, and language, "IN & OZ" is a tale of the human condition that is as visually compelling as it is moving. A novel not only for fiction lovers, but also for artists of all stripes, "IN & OZ" creates a fantasy that illumines our own world as it lucidly builds its own.