Praise for Soda Lake
"It’s got all the qualities of a postmodern masterpiece that if you commit to and submit to will take you on a thought-provoking, experiential ride... Soda Lake feels like [Hampsey's] channeling ideas from an unseen wellspring."
-Glen Starkey for New Times SLO
“John C. Hampsey’s Soda Lake begins like a mystery—a man vanishes into a desert salt flat—but quickly becomes a dreamlike voyage into the nature of identity that offers readers an original and haunting exploration of the self.”
-Edward Sung for IndieReader
“In his new novel--Soda Lake, from its Hitchcockian opening scene to its hallucinatory conclusion, John Hampsey—author of Paranoia and Contentment and Kaufman’s Hill—continues to do what he does best: narrating through a series of “evolving epiphanies,” those existential moments that unmask our false selves only to reveal a new way of being that just keeps unfolding into radically new manifestations-- taking the narrative, the protagonist, the reader, and yes, even the author, into startlingly unexpected worlds of shifting perceptions, and brilliant emanations.”
-Robert Inchausti, author of Subversive Orthodoxy: Thomas Merton’s American Prophecy and other works.
“[Soda Lake] will simply delight readers interested in stories of transformation and change that operate as literary examinations of duality, choice, and dreams… Replete with metaphor, allegory, and insight, Soda Lake moves full circle in its saga of a search for love, truth, and resolution, and is especially highly recommended for readers seeking components of psychological thriller reading that are delivered firmly embedded in powerful revelations about finding (and failing to find, sometimes), core values in life and faith.
- Midwest Book Review
“I think many writers can remember a moment that, if it had not happened, their life may have gone in a different direction.”
-Featured Interview With John Hampsey at Book Reader Magazine.
“At once a metaphysical, Lynchian pursuit and a meditation on being and nothingness, Soda Lake is an eerie, baroque dream. John C Hampsey has fashioned a strange and tantalizing novel.”
- Stewart O’Nan, author of The Speed Queen and City of Secrets.
“…For readers willing to surrender to its strange currents, Soda Lake offers a challenging and genuinely original voyage through the nature of consciousness and identity—with all its weird detours and dead ends.”
-Edward Sung for IndieReader
“…it is a fully immersive event. The writing style is almost poetic and in the classic literary style, and each setting is described in cinematic detail, from peaceful valleys and busy cafés to windswept lighthouses and remote islands... Hampsey goes a long way in building a balance between thought and observation of the surroundings, and in producing a story that is exceptionally unique, elegant, and ambitious. Very highly recommended.”