Overview

Winner of the River Teeth Literary Nonfiction Prize Disequilibria: Meditations on Missingness is a hybrid memoir that recounts the 1982 disappearance of the author's stepfather, James Edward Lewis, a pilot and Vietnam veteran. Recounting his family's experiences in searching for answers, Lunday interrogates the broader cultural and conceptual responses to the phenomenon of missingness by connecting his stepfather's case to other true-life disappearances as well as those portrayed in fiction, poetry, and film. In doing so Disequilibria explores the transience in modern life, considering the military-dependent experience, the corrosive effects of war, and the struggle to find closure and comfort as time goes by without answers.

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9780826364678

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Reviews

This haunting, engrossing, superbly written memoir is full of revelations and mysteries: a kind of prose epic of the missing. Chockful of Americana, it is also marbled with uncanny literary references: Robert Lunday seems to have read everything and put it to good use. His intelligence makes this book shine.--Phillip Lopate, author of A Mother's Tale With its arresting catalogue of anecdotes and passages illustrating missingness, Disequilibria captures what it's like to become obsessed with a mystery, as well as what it feels like to get trapped in its labyrinth. But most compellingly, it teaches us that if the grief-stricken can't find out the truth, they can attain solace in the still-present love for those who are gone.--Rigoberto Gonzalez, author of Abuela in Shadow, Abuela in Light

Elliptical prose . . .moving . . .elegiac. --Publishers Weekly With its arresting catalogue of anecdotes and passages illustrating missingness, Disequilibria captures what it's like to become obsessed with a mystery, as well as what it feels like to get trapped in its labyrinth. But most compellingly, it teaches us that if the grief-stricken can't find out the truth, they can attain solace in the still-present love for those who are gone. --Rigoberto Gonzalez, author of Abuela in Shadow, Abuela in Light This haunting, engrossing, superbly written memoir is full of revelations and mysteries: a kind of prose epic of the missing. Chockful of Americana, it is also marbled with uncanny literary references: Robert Lunday seems to have read everything and put it to good use. His intelligence makes this book shine. --Phillip Lopate, author of A Mother's Tale

This haunting, engrossing, superbly written memoir is full of revelations and mysteries: a kind of prose epic of the missing. Chockful of Americana, it is also marbled with uncanny literary references: Robert Lunday seems to have read everything and put it to good use. His intelligence makes this book shine. Phillip Lopate, author of A Mother's Tale With its arresting catalogue of anecdotes and passages illustrating missingness, Disequilibria captures what it's like to become obsessed with a mystery, as well as what it feels like to get trapped in its labyrinth. But most compellingly, it teaches us that if the grief-stricken can't find out the truth, they can attain solace in the still-present love for those who are gone. Rigoberto Gonzalez, author of Abuela in Shadow, Abuela in Light

"Elliptical prose . . .moving . . .elegiac.""--Publishers Weekly ""With its arresting catalogue of anecdotes and passages illustrating missingness, Disequilibria captures what it's like to become obsessed with a mystery, as well as what it feels like to get trapped in its labyrinth. But most compellingly, it teaches us that if the grief-stricken can't find out the truth, they can attain solace in the still-present love for those who are gone.""--Rigoberto González, author of Abuela in Shadow, Abuela in Light ""This haunting, engrossing, superbly written memoir is full of revelations and mysteries: a kind of prose epic of the missing. Chockful of Americana, it is also marbled with uncanny literary references: Robert Lunday seems to have read everything and put it to good use. His intelligence makes this book shine.""--Phillip Lopate, author of A Mother's Tale"

This haunting, engrossing, superbly written memoir is full of revelations and mysteries: a kind of prose epic of the missing. Chockful of Americana, it is also marbled with uncanny literary references: Robert Lunday seems to have read everything and put it to good use. His intelligence makes this book shine. --Phillip Lopate, author of A Mother's Tale With its arresting catalogue of anecdotes and passages illustrating missingness, Disequilibria captures what it's like to become obsessed with a mystery, as well as what it feels like to get trapped in its labyrinth. But most compellingly, it teaches us that if the grief-stricken can't find out the truth, they can attain solace in the still-present love for those who are gone. --Rigoberto Gonzalez, author of Abuela in Shadow, Abuela in Light

Author Information

Robert Lunday is a professor of English at Houston Community College. He is also author of Mad Flights and Gnome.

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