Josh Harper’s ADDITIONAL ATTENDEE is a rollicking mixture of farce, metafiction, and detective mystery. But despite its lighthearted substance, the oddly titled novel also offers up a heartfelt reflection on love, marriage, and the human condition.
The plot involves 40s-something actor Paul living unhappily with his wife and dog in an overpriced Brooklyn apartment building filled with eccentric and, as the story builds, increasingly suspicious characters. Paul wonders, in an early observation that explains both the title and a major theme, “Was I really going to continue documenting my aging process by playing a consecutive string of ‘passersby’ or ‘additional attendees’ on shows you’ve never heard of? And that’s if I was lucky?”
Paul suspects his wife of cheating, and in his efforts to catch her in the act, he enlists Alina (the pretty, young receptionist he quietly lusts after) for help. They discover the murdered body of a tenant known for his rowdy parties. Soon after, Paul becomes a prime suspect.
Laugh-out-loud farce ensues. A running gag involves Alina trying to get herself fired from the job she hates. In the meantime, the narrator takes occasional, loving swipes at political correctness. One great moment is when Paul and Alina respond to their discovery of the body in a classic New York manner, more mild curiosity than horror: “‘As scared as I am of this body,’ I confessed, ‘part of me is interested in the layout of his apartment.’” Paul continues: “‘Looks like he was strangled. Such an old-fashioned way to die.’ ‘I guess it’s hard to kill someone with an app,’ Alina considered. ‘You have to admire the murderer’s hands-on approach.’”
Author Josh Harper uses imaginative ploys to keep pages turning. These include creative scampers throughout the building in search of hiding places, colorful new bit players, absurd conversations with suspects stoned on Xanax, and a droll relationship between prime suspect Paul and a police detective. But beyond such comic fluff, the book offers deeper reflections, using drugs and peril as tools to peel away the defensive layers hiding the narrator’s personal truths. Key among them are what Paul learns too late about the real problems in his unhappy marriage and life.
Harper also throws in dashes of metafiction, a tricky and potentially off-putting technique. Here it’s used sparingly, and to great effect; it both gets at the deeper story of self-discovery and winks at the reader via sly asides: “I feel like I’m just following someone as they go from person to person, place to place, asking questions. A lot of it feels like killing time until some big reveal.” In this dialogue-heavy book, Paul observes that it’s probably pointless to include description because “most people are going to skim, at best.”
There is one hard-to-believe detail in the story, involving a clue not shared when it should have been. Also, the title is awkward and not particularly appealing. But these are quibbles. Near the book’s end, Paul starts ruminating about writing a sequel devoted to his friend Bob Shapiro, “a real mensch.” Readers will eagerly anticipate the appearance of that book.
Farce and introspection combine seamlessly in Josh Harper’s fanciful send-up of the classic detective murder-mystery, ADDITIONAL ATTENDEE. More than a comic caper, it is also a study in self-delusion and loss.
~Anne Welsbacher for IndieReader