Spaceman Blues, by Brian Francis Slattery

Craig Laurance Gidney is a native Washingtonian who blogs and publishes the occasional piece of fiction.

This charming mashup novel mixes tropes like a sample-happy DJ. One minute it's a mystery novel; the next, a science fiction thriller; a book of conspiracy theories; a post 9-11 gay love story and a sardonic guide through New York City's underground subcultures. Spaceman Blues starts with the sudden, violent disappearance of party-boy Manuel Rodrigo de Guzman Gonzalez, who has his finger in a number of nefarious activities. His lover Wendell goes searching for him, in a wild plot that leads him to cockfight rings and underground cities. In the process, Wendell uncovers a kooky intrigue that involves an invasion and a cult, the Church of Panic.

Wendell eventually transforms himself into Captain Spaceman, a hero of the upper and lower cities. If the plot sounds crazy and meandering, it also isn't really the point. Slattery's novel is a love song to New York City, its teeming immigrant neighborhoods, hipster bars and various subcultures. It 's also a love song to the music of language—strains of Afropop, mariachi, hip hop and funk cascade through the verbal dance floor of the punchy, present-tense prose. Folks missing the manic surrealism of the late Vonnegut will probably enjoy this debut.