American Creamy is the first full-length novel written by Jonathan Spradlin. It is a work of literary fiction that encompasses many fields of interest and study as its dual stories wind in and through themselves and each other. It is a psychedelic, poetic, and musical novel, heavily influenced by the work of James Joyce, Cormac McCarthy, Franz Kafka, and Ernest Hemingway in its tempered stream of consciousness style.
There are four distinct, sometimes overlapping, timelines to be found in the stories. This is accomplished by Spradlin's mode of delivery, which uses Ezekiel Thomas, or "Preacher Man" as the narrator, writing to you, the reader, in a jailhouse notebook. His musings take him everywhere along the path of his own long life (he is well over fifty years old), especially pointing out the events that led to his several incarcerations, and some of what happened to him while incarcerated.
Preacher Man's story takes the front seat in this, the first half of the novel. But, the reader also meets, along with Preacher Man, the other protagonist of American Creamy, Eben Thomas. The two meet just a few short weeks prior to the writing of the book. Indeed, the meeting itself spurs the writing, as Preacher Man implies in his opening paragraphs. The two find themselves together in an eight man "tank" in what's called a Behavioral Observation ward in the Dallas County Jail. Behavioral Observation is a very real place in Dallas County where inmates are placed who have some history of mental illness, but who are not psychotic or violent at the moment of triage.
Preacher Man, who is black, feels compelled to transcribe the younger white man Eben's story. And indeed, it is a strange one. The reader learns very early on that both men suffer from visual hallucinations. Preacher Man, who is no preacher, but rather was given the name by fellow prison inmates, many of whom felt strangely drawn to confess their stories, their crimes, to him, believes that his visions, "the cream" he calls them, are some spiritual blessing or curse. On the other hand, Eben, who suffers from very similar visions, believes that he is very much insane, and he takes strong narcotics, illegally, to settle them down. He thinks that in this way he will be able to function normally in society. It is up to the reader, of course, to decide if he is at all successful at attaining normalcy.
The stories are strange, sometimes violent, often sexually charged, and while the stories themselves are always paramount, there is plenty of room for a little philisophical pedagogy, and social critique to be embedded amongst the insanity, among other interesting little tidbits here and there. Spradlin, 38, is from Dallas, Texas, and much of the book is set there, though a large chunk of Eben's story (in part two) is set in Page, Arizona. He writes a great deal about prison, and the darker side of human life. These are places that most folk don't wish to visit themselves, thought there is a great deal of interest in what goes on in prisons, courtrooms, drug dens, etc. Spradlin spent too much of his life treading those dark paths, as sometimes good men lose their way. He has returned, though not unscathed, and he is here to report on what he experienced.
