The Weekly Croissant: Rachel Kushner's The Flame Throwers

Is blowing my damn mind

For as long as I’ve lived in Nashville, I’ve heard about the Southern Festival of Books, and thought “I should go to that!” So, when my book friend was in town (she works in publishing), and suggested that we attend I jumped at the opportunity.

My musician friend Kevin Morby had a panel in conversation with author Rachel Kushner, who has recently released a new book of essays. Apparently, he is a big fan of her writing, and I vaguely remembered her as the author of a book I read way back called “Telex from Cuba”, which I really enjoyed.

Rachel had a renegade vibe about her, leathered out and glamorous, but kind, relatable, and un-snobby. She and Kevin talked a lot about cars and motorcycles, which is a topic I generally can’t get behind. In fact, I have essentially no interest in motorized vehicles. Suddenly, they seemed hugely romantic and fascinating.

In need of a new novel, I picked up “The Flamethrowers”, on my way out. It’s not her most recent work, having been published in 2013. But, I figured I should start where I left off in the canon of her work. Additionally, I loved the cover image, which to me, evoked Kushner’s coolness and style.

Once I started reading this book, I couldn’t believe what I’d been missing out on all these years. The settings, the characters, the twisting, and layered plot lines, the social commentary, and windows into a myriad of human experiences. This is one of those books where I’m constantly asking myself, how the hell does someone write this? There is so much history, wisdom, and perspective packed into one place that it feels superhuman.

The story follows a young female narrator from Reno, Nevada as she navigates the New York art scene in the 1970’s. The narrator is a former motorcycle lover and ski racer, and the plot thickens when she starts dating a rich and established artist named Sandro Valera, whose family in Italy manufactures tires and motorbikes.

The perspective shifts all the way back to the origins of that company, the sourcing of the rubber for the tires in the Amazon, and the exploitation of workers from the beginning of the company’s time, which becomes a through-line to the present-day (1970’s) protests and strikes at the factories in Italy.

When I try to summarize it, it doesn’t do the book justice. It is complex, rich, and emotional, allowing the reader to see politics from a human perspective, which is always the goal with art (in my opinion).

One thing I particularly loved was the way that Kushner writes about class.

Photo by Katherine Hanlon on Unsplash

“I thought of something Ronnie had said, that rich people didn’t follow the letter of the law. Only strivers did that, Ronnie said. Doggedly following rules emphasized that one did not belong, according to Ronnie. It sounded right. Although there was some way of following the, while not submitting to them, but it required a mysterious touch, and you had to be from that class to possess the special touch”

She does the same kind of analysis of the art scene, pointing out the absurdity while also making it romantic and desirable. There’s entire chapters devoted to art as imitation of life, a waitress who is only a waitress as performance, a man who’s artistic expression is to enter crowds wielding a large striped stick and bonk people on the head with it accidentally.

Photo by Federica Campanaro on Unsplash

This book got a ton of awards when it came out, but in case you (like me) missed it somehow, I thought I’d give it some Croissant love! Have you read any of Rachel Kushner’s work? Which book is your favorite?