Product Description

The world has waited decades for a new anti-hero in American fiction, a character who prophesizes the pettiness of American social life at the beginning of the twenty-first century. With Conrad Greyman, a social visionary arrives to illuminate the inequities and shallowness of our social lives now, as the Beats did for their generation.

In a musty dorm room at an elite college in upstate New York sleeps Conrad Greyman. He sleeps all the time, in fact. Conrad is a casualty of postmodern malaise and bears hidden wounds he doesn’t understand.

"Mardi Gras" tells the fantastic story of Conrad’s spontaneous trip to the great southern festival. He finds there, amid the infernal chaos of neon lights and Bourbon, a chance for unlikely redemption. Conrad’s journey through the mad streets of New Orleans becomes a modern hero-quest, and New Orleans an epic landscape. Conrad’s adventure is populated by holy fools who come to his aid, menacing frat boys, magical beads, and unadulterated American decadence. In the balance hangs the fate of an inward-looking soul trying to make his way through a fractured, carnivalistic world.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2002788 in Books
• Published on: 2004-08-16
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 167 pages

About the Author
Jason Bentsman lives in NYC. His writing has appeared in "Flaneur," "FIRE" (Oxford, UK), "The Back Alley Arts Magazine," "Wild Poets," "Under the Influence of Art," the poetry anthology "Looking Forward, Looking Back: Canonical Poetry and the Contemporary Response" (PulpLit Press), among other publications. Mr. Bentsman received his education at Vassar College and Oxford University.

Customer Reviews

thrilling
I read this book last week and couldn't put it down. I stayed up reading it all night in about 2 sittings. The prose are intoxicating. Bentsman puts you right in the middle of Mardi Gras and doesn't let you out. It's a powerful rollercoaster of an experience that conjures the real thing. On occasion, the inexperience of the author shines through - particularly in moments where style trumps the narrative, but otherwise, this is a great quick read. I look forward to seeing where Bentsman takes us next.

An unlikely and worthwhile find
"Mardi Gras in the Moment" might also be appropriately titled "Fear and Loathing in the South." The reader is led along a journey of human depravity, tragic pettiness, and astonishing redemption that deconstructs into a spiritual crisis for our protagonist, Conrad. However, this book is more meditative and carries a stronger moral sense than anything that Dr. Thompson could ever produce. The story begins with Conrad, a hermetic college student, in the throes of an unexplained, mysterious depression that brings him to insomnia and general paralysis. One night, Conrad decides to peruse his old journal and we are wickedly shoved into the plot of the book, the unfathomable madness of his trip to Mardi Gras the previous year.

Bentsman has a Proustian eye for the frequent triviality of his generation's social life. He especially takes to task frat boys: Conrad is repeatedly found saying "nice talking to you fellas" and walking away from absurd social situations. It sounds awfully reductive to say that "Mardi Gras in the Moment" addresses the ephemerality of life and the finality of loss with an inherent sense of the tragic. But these are the themes that gracefully present themselves through the infernal chaos of magical beads, copious beer, and bourbon. Most importantly, Bentsman manages to rescue his novel from a hard fate as mere bitter, elitist whining; the conclusion of the novel is a breathtaking breaking of light through the darkness. Having been through hell (which we sinfully enjoy, anyway), Conrad's spiritual redemption seems utterly heroic.

An auspicious debut for this seemingly young and hitherto unknown author.

Worth the read
The book doesn't take place entirely at Mardi Gras, as the title led me to believe. The main character starts out in upstate New York, then travels to Memphis, and arrives at Mardi Gras about a third into the book. The style of prose seems to change based on the character's state of mind; it begins cool and concise, then during Mardi Gras, as the character begins to abandon himself, becomes almost stream-of-consciousness ala Virginia Woolf. The book is a good first time effort, at its best, giddy feverishly delightful, and every now and again, a little unpolished, which usually adds to its charm. I'm glad it was recommended me. One note: I think it's best suited for a younger audience, maybe ages 12 to 28. My daughter, who's in high school, certainly devoured it. But I think anyone would enjoy it.