The Rachel Condition

The Rachel Condition is at once a political thriller, a family saga, and a mind-bending love story that plays out through the mysterious byways of Detroit.

Antony has ostensibly traveled to Detroit in search of the last copy of a dangerous political novel, but his true purpose is to infiltrate a tight circle of political dissidents. Rachel appears to be working for the Detroit-based insurgency, but her loyalties are complicated.

They meet at a dive bar with a dangerousIndiana Jones and the Temple of Doom pinball machine and a malevolent bartender named Paul. There’s also Patti, of the proto-punk band Psycho Femmes; Julia, whose uncle founded the Detroit chapter of the Black Panthers; The Commander, also known as Charlotte; The Colonel, who wears many uniforms so to speak; and Yama, a doom metal band that literally plays eternal, one-note songs.

Nothing is as it seems, no one can be trusted, and, as Rachel reminds Antony, everything is different in retrospect. History, as Rachel knows, is written by the victors, and this goes for personal history, too. The Rachel Condition tells a story of tenderness and the power of art to create and destroy in the midst of violence and chaos.

Nicholas Rombes is author of the novel The Absolution of Roberto Acestes Laing (Two Dollar Radio), Ramones (from Bloomsbury’s 33 1/3 series), and Cinema in the Digital Age (Columbia University Press). He also wrote and directed the lo-fi sci-fi love story film The Removals. His work has appeared in The Believer, The Oxford American, The Los Angeles Review of Books, and other places. He is an English prof. at the University of Detroit Mercy in northwest Detroit, where he hosts the Creative Writing Collective.