Literary Las Vegas for Sept. 10, 2013 – “Spunk: A Fable”
The boys from “The Lord of the Flies” have nothing on Las Vegas author Helen O’Reilly’s female cast in her first novel for adults, “Spunk: A Fable,” featuring cover art by local artist Warren Wucinich. When the earth begins to tremble two buses packed with women and girls on their way to an abortion rally in Washington, D.C., are trapped in a forest on the outskirts of New York City. The survivors set up a society where men and boys who unwittingly find their way into the woods will never be welcome.
When it becomes clear no one is going to come and save them, the women swiftly slip into violence, cannibalism and even infanticide in an effort to prop up their Amazonian principles.
A book launch party for “Spunk: A Fable” is scheduled from 2 to 5 p.m. Sept. 15 at The Beat Coffeehouse inside Emergency Arts, 520 Fremont St. O’Reilly is slated to read, books will be available at a discount and the local band Hoodoo is set to play. For more information, visit helenhavlin.wix.com/spunky.
Excerpt from ‘Spunk: A Fable’
Later, when it seemed the world had come to a full stop, and no one was coming to their rescue, and they were the only ones left, some of them killed themselves. One woman killed her two small children and then herself. The others found themselves marooned in a creeping green jungle that seemed to flow as it grew around them, eating up ruins and rubble, covering whatever buildings had been in the forest with a kind of kudzu in a day, and re-creating itself to have dominion over everything on two legs by the time the first year had come full-circle.
By that time, as they always do, some leaders had emerged. Some leaders, some followers, and some fools.
