Ron Loewinsohn – Magnetic Fields

Organized around the idea that “you can’t know what a magnetic field is like unless you’re inside of it, ” Ron Loewinsohn’s first novel opens from the disturbing perspective of a burglar in the midst of a robbery and travels through the thoughts and experiences (both real and imaginary) of a group of characters whose lives are connected both coincidentally and intimately. All of the characters have a common desire to imagine and invent rather horrifying stories about the lives of people around them. As the novel develops, certain phrasings and images recur improbably, drawing the reader into a subtle linguistic game that calls into question the nature of authorship, the ways we inhabit and invade each other’s lives, and the shape of fiction itself.