"I’m alone in a foreign city, mostly, and it occurs to me that there are possibilities of speech that have yet to be explored and that one day I may be graced with the ability to talk about these things. But for now it feels closer to the memory of a half-forgotten melody, a suggestion of harmony buried deep beneath the waves of time and activity and everything that has happened to me before and since. I could hum it for you. And perhaps you could write it down. I’d call it ‘Walking to Damascus’ or something like that. But really, I suspect it would mean nothing to you."

The Towers The Fields The Transmitters is a companion novella to David Keenan's forthcoming Xstabeth. Both are published by White Rabbit Books, "dedicated to publishing the most innovative books and voices in music and literature", most notably recently Mark Lanegan's [book:Sing Backwards and Weep: A Memoir|51284863] which was longlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize, a prize for which David Keenan's first and second novels won and were shortlisted and won respectively. The publisher Lee Brackstone explains the background to publishing Keenan's two new books (https://www.thesocial.com/gnostic-golf-epiphanies-with-david-keenan/):

"Today, a few days into official British Summertime we announced the third novel by David Keenan as a new season in his publishing life commences at White Rabbit Books. It will be the first novel published at the imprint, which is dedicated to literature related to music, because Xstabeth is full to the brim with music. It is, among other things, a novel about singersongwriters, St Petersberg, St Andrews, golf, and music as a visionary and transformative experience.

Xstabeth arrived with me accidentally. Last year I had arranged for David to be the inaugural Writer in Residence at Andrew Weatherall’s Convenanza Festival in Carcassonne. Andrew and I had talked about the idea of starting a private press publishing one short book a year (fiction or non-fiction) to coincide with the festival in September. The imprint would be called Convenanza Press. Safe in the knowledge there are many files of books in various finished and incomplete forms on David’s hard drive (at least six that I know of) we discussed what might be a suitable title for such a venture. A week or so after the festival he sent me Xstabeth which was then called This is Where the Heart Ends claiming he couldn’t remember having written it. I believed him. We talked some more and reached the conclusion it had been written over a period of weeks towards the end of 2017 after a particularly eventful visit to Holland together. A moment, we both reflected, when we had both been quite unhinged.

Earlier this year, I think around the time of Weatherall’s funeral, David informed me of the existence of a 22,000-word prequel to Xstabeth called The Towers The Fields The Transmitters. Excited and intimidated by the sheer volume of WORDS ready to pour forth into the world from this writer we decided to gift this book to readers in ebook form when you pre-order the new novel. The Towers The Fields The Transmitters will then disappear. Did it technically ever exist? Or did we collectively dream it into life?"

Keenan's own take on Xstabeth:

"I have little memory of the writing of Xstabeth, but I believe it took place just after, or just before, the publication of my first novel, This Is Memorial Device. In other words, it was written in a state of possession. And then it disappeared. I moved onto something else and forgot I had even written it. Then I stumbled across it one day while tidying files on my computer and finally read it for the first time. And it spoke to me in an unrecognisable voice, a voice that seemed fathomless, bottomless. I came to the point of figuring out what my own book was about, or rather, more, what it wanted to be. Though in a way I’m still figuring it out. And besides, there is no point.

I have been a lifelong fan of William Blake. I always thought my studying of him would one day pay off in some kind of gnosis or illuminated understanding. But truly, I have lived with Blake long enough to know that there is no stopping, no place of rest, in Blake, no final judgement. Blake’s works are alive, energy in eternal delight, and so are not resolvable, and have no ‘point’ to deliver or to be gained. Blake cuts through literary materialism, which is why he is as alive, now, today, as he ever was.

There is no resolution in life, people simply disappear. Authors, then, are like ministering angels, with the balm of continuity, the blessing of resolution, the benediction of sense, and structure. But as Blake notes, throughout his work, there are infernal angels too, and these, also, have their holy duties."

The Towers The Fields The Transmitters is certainly an intriguing taster for Xstabeth and an interesting if perplexing story in its own right.

It isn't really a book susceptible to a plot summary, but it opens:

"We met in the early evening, on the steps of the museum, two six-foot twins in Glasgow, we got our share of attention, when we showed up we were big news, two six-foot twins on our way to this fight night.</i>

Our narrator twin ends up in St Andrews where he has an ill-defined job auditing an airfield (above which WW2 planes seem to mysteriously appear). Both in Glasgow and later in St Andrews he is convinced young woman he sees are his daughter, who he has not seen many years, but also finds himself attracted to them. And he finds himself accused of nocturnal misdeeds for which he claims to not be responsible, perhaps carried out by a doppelganger - a companion remarks that he is living the story of Poe's William Wilson..

And he learns of various odd characters including a local writer called "David W. Keenan" (I understand Xstabeth may be presented as written by this man) who committed suicide by throwing himself from St Rule's Tower in the grounds of St Andrew's Cathedral, and also a legendary and mysterious performance artist called Abramelicz, or The Commander, who performed his work from inside WW2 concentration camps:

"She listed the most famous of The Commandant’s works, he created these masterpieces, she said, at which point she took another beer and drank it down like it was a hot afternoon, even though it was a late autumn evening in Dundee, The Towers, she said, The Fields, The Transmitters, The Construct, The Bunker, The Diorama."

If I had an issue it's that I suspect parts of it passed me by. There may be some intertextuality with his other novels - one memorable character, the Peripatetic Golfer, and master of putting from the fairway, Tusky McPheat appears to share a name (if not an identity) with a character from This is Memorial Device. And I've seen mention elsewhere of references to Leonard Cohen's music - I know of only one of his songs (Hallelujah). Keenan's own playlist for the novel is here - https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0zopOemJwWYyOoQ6K7DD3h.

I suspect also the links between The Towers The Fields The Transmitters and Xstabeth will really bring this to life and I plan to revisit the novella when the novel is published later this month.

A provisional 3.5 stars rounded to 4.

You need to pay attention to this book as it races through, with no respite (let alone chapters) at all.
Frankly bizarre at times, but all the more enjoyable for it. The characterisations are superbly crafted and the story interests you from the onset. Buckle up and enjoy. One of my favourite authors right now.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/6154155-justin-sarginson