The Unreprinted: Gush by Keith Abbott

by Ben Arzate

The Unreprinted explores the depths of books forgotten and fallen into the limbo of being out-of-print and only available as used copies. A place where strange and bizarre books can often be found. For this first entry for Bizarro Central, we take a look at the unusual novel Gush by Richard Brautigan biographer, Keith Abbott. 

Subtitled “a novel about unemployment in California,” Keith Abbott’s first novel is about the various eccentric and fantastic characters at an unemployment office in Monterey, California. Almost everyone there is a member of the Gush family. We’re introduced to a former Pony Express rider who is over 100 years old, soldiers in a literal war on poverty, a host of a game show at the unemployment office, a former hitman, and many others at the office either to collect benefits or to work their day jobs. 

The word I immediately reach for when thinking about this book is “Brautigan-esque.” Abbott was not only a contemporary of Richard Brautigan, but a friend and a biographer. Brautigan even blurbed this novel. 

This is not to say this book is just an imitation of Brautigan. To contrast the two authors, I find Abbott’s style in this book to be loose and unpredictable, whereas, despite how odd he could get, Brautigan had an obvious tight hold on his narratives. Abbott, on the other hand, seems to have created a cast of characters that he let free in this unemployment office to do as they please. 

The novel has a satirical bent. It not only mocks the bureaucracy of programs like unemployment but also the nature of employment. One of the first characters we meet is Buck Gush, a former Pony Express rider. He’s been out of work since the Pony Express went under, but finds there’s little other work that would fit his skills. He had a specialization of skills that was no longer needed, and now the system can do little but prevent him from falling into destitution. 

This is a running theme with the characters. Another by the name of Magic Eddy Gush is a Korean translator, but there’s little need for such an occupation in California. Another, Gus Gush, is cagey about his former job, but obviously worked for the Mafia. The best he can find with such a background is a minimum-wage security job. Why take that when he could make far more money going back to crime? 

Anyone who’s ever taken unemployment or any kind of government benefit knows it can be a profoundly frustrating and undignified process. One of my favorite parts of the book involves three of the people in the office for benefits being put on a broadcast for a game show called “How Fucked Up Are You?” where they compete for their benefits by telling their sob stories to the nation. The show is suddenly shut down when one of the Gushes mistakenly rips a cable from the wall and causes a blackout in the office. 

While whether this is a flaw or an enjoyable part of the book will depend on your taste, at times it seems like Abbott either got bored with the employment theme or couldn’t relate his various eccentric characters to it. One character, named Captain Ray Gush, has a brief arc where he attempts to steal books from a bookstore and gets hit with a knockout gas, leading him to nod off behind the office, where he spends most of the book. 

This may relate to the ending, which also feels a bit out of place, which involves the entire cast going on a picnic and being driven out by a gas attack from the continuing war on poverty. As short as this book is, only about 140 pages, it’s packed with so much I occasionally found myself lost in everything going on. 

Is this a book that deserves to come back to print? I certainly think so. As of writing this, the US is currently living through a regime that seems hellbent on destroying the last remnants of the New Deal and any poverty programs, as well as ensuring any progress in worker rights is halted. Despite the hippie tinge to Gush, it may be more relevant than ever.

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