Factory Town -- Jon Bassoff

I think I can safely promise that you won't read another book like Factory Town this year.  Or maybe ever.  It's a strange, dark, hallucinatory trip.  There's a prologue.  Some people, so I've heard, skip prologues.  Don't skip this one.  It's the key to what's happening in the rest of the book.  Read the epilogue, too, as it ties in very well with the prologue and the book's events.  I'm trying not to give too much away here.

Russell Carver comes to Factory Town looking for a girl named Alana.  Factory Town is nightmarish, and so are the things that happen there.  In fact, as I read some of the vividly rendered scenes in the book, I thought that John Bassoff might have been spying on my own nightmares.  As in all nightmares, strange things happen.  The picture of Alana, a computer printout, changes.  Long journeys cover short distances.  The real and the unreal shift and change.  As Carver continues to look for the girl, we gradually come to realize that he's also looking for himself and searching through his own past.  

If Factory Town is sometimes confusing, it's only because it's meant to be that way.  Everything comes together by the ending, and you'll find that the journey through the decaying landscape is well worth the trip.  Check it out.