Indie Book Review - Broken Bulbs by Eddie Wright

“There’s nothing like that millisecond when thoughts and feelings and dreams and creativity and pride pile on top of each other to form a mountain of hope that you can climb to overlook all the shit that clouds your existence.”

                                                            -Wright, Broken Bulbs

Everybody wants to be or do something in life, and that “something” can sometimes feel nearly impossible to achieve. Frank Fisher is a struggling writer and addict who will stop at nothing to find the inspiration that will help him return from the physical and mental rot in which he finds himself. Frank depends on his eccentric lady-friend, Bonnie, for a fresh supply of inspirational “seeds” that Bonnie must inject directly into his brain. As Frank receives the doses he needs, he finally and climactically completes the macabre screenplay that screamed for escape for so long.

Eddie Wright takes his audience on quite a trip (did you catch that pun?) throughout this surreal, existential novella. Broken Bulbs is a stream of consciousness description of real time moments in the creative struggle of main character Frank Fisher. Wright creatively intertwines Frank’s highs with the script of the screenplay that Frank is desperately trying to complete, allowing the audience to indulge in two plotlines:  Frank’s drug laced race against “Nothingness,” and the reckoning of Frank’s screenplay’s disturbed main character, Rusty, by way of a posthumous father and a scorned, six-foot hamster (Yes, seriously). Wright paints a vivid picture of these two sets, so much so that it could be easily translated into a stage play or a graphic novel. With this duality, Wright uniquely interprets a semi-autobiographical fictional depiction within a semi-autobiographical fictional depiction of a person’s quest for meaning and recognition.

This work satisfies a narrow audience, mostly creative types, possibly addicts, and definitely fans of existentialism. Broken Bulbs is not a traditional or light read. If you are seeking a character-based novel with relationships and a beginning, middle, and end, this book is not for you. Suggestion: Read in one sitting. It is a quick read that contains so much choppy stream of consciousness writing that it takes a bit of time to adjust it. Trying to come back to it mid story causes a loss of momentum and intent.

Find Broken Bulbs on Amazon, and to learn more about author Eddie Wright’s influence, inspiration, and writings, follow his blog.

-Joan