Accidents of Birth

About the Book

"Alto Baski, Michael Clark Lorenzo's bipolar alter ego in Accidents of Birth, is often hilarious, frighteningly grave and perfectly consistent.  Finally, the Baby Boomer generation has produced an author who has exposed the essence of madness that lurks beneath the faux finish of our age.  Not since Kerouac's On the Road or Farina's Been Down So Long, It Looks Like Up to Me, has any novel so eloquently reminded me that serious literature exists, even at the edge of reason."

Richard D. R. Hoffmann, Editor

The Greentree Gazette

If you are offended by references to frenetic spiritual groping long legs drugs sex rock n’ roll booze literature bliss gypsy hallucinating godspinning tattoo poet acid nightmares voyeurism jail Mozart subculture extraterrestrial angels masturbation junkies transvestites saints airports and manic mystic metamorphosis by all means do not read this book. However, if such a tapestry, serving as a backdrop to a madman’s search for self-acceptance, love and liberation from the demons within piques your interest, then this book is a must read!

In 20 words or less:

Accidents of Birth is a tale of love, insanity and other pointless arguments with destiny... the adventures of Alto Baski.

In 20 words or more:

Alto Baski is a Renaissance man, a gypsy, a poet, a renegade, a dream-thinker, a leg-man, a time traveler, an ex-television writer, and a devoted juggler of great spiritual truths. Alto is a man of good intentions who is at the end of his rope.  

Alto Baski wanders the vast corridors of JFK airport without a clue how he got there. He is definitely on a mission, but he can’t remember what the hell it is. Only a momentary diversion, he tells himself. And just when Alto is about to plummet back into his finely tuned abyss, he is swept away by Ingrid Marie Hamsun, a stunning beauty who has a mission of her own. Stumbling his way through the airport’s melange of distorted characters, Alto vows to find his way out of the monstrous, anonymous citadel. Moments later, through no fault nor achievement of his own, Alto flees arm in arm with the lovely Ingrid.

They board a plane bound for Richmond, Virginia where a festival of surreal encounters with parties both real and imagined ensues. When things get tough, Alto relies on a catechism of memories and bourbon to preserve a calm mind, a process which leaves him trapped between the blurry world of the Past (filled with malicious ghosts, pontificating monsters and angels in short skirts) and the flickering pulse of an equally surreal Present.

The adventure continues when Alto and Ingrid land in Richmond, which “coincidentally” happens to be the site of many of Alto’s former indiscretions. They visit one of his old favorite beerjoints, which to Alto’s horror has been completely remodeled. The only thing that lingers from the past is Frank, an old poet, who invites Alto and Ingrid to an intergalactic conference in Bear Mountain, New York- the known center of the universe.

Next stop is a farm 20 miles outside of town, where Alto prepares and Italian feast, draws Ingrid into his unusual sexual orbit, and reconnects to an old friend- a psychodramatic manifestation, the inimitable great hairy beast, Wolfie. Alto then proceeds to officially ‘go over the edge.’

The machine of Alto Baski’s madness goes into accelerated motion: first running naked through the woods with a pack a wild dogs, then dueling in the streets of Richmond with the social elite, and then on to a bar brawl with his nemesis beast, Wolfie. The downward spiral beckons and sweeps Alto through a series of bizarre landscapes: a transvestite bar in D.C., a haunted flophouse, the open road with its low-flying high-octane laughing Buddhas and the parallel universe in the cab of a Peterbilt-Semi where creatures of this galaxy and others converge and descend upon Alto to perform a frightening intervention.

“Accidents of Birth” is a dark comedy, a mystica

About the Author

Michael Clark Lorenzo is a writer, painter and musician. Lorenzo spent a year at Goddard College studying writing before going on the road: traveling across country giving poetry readings and performing music. Michael returned home to Long Island and worked as an alcoholism counselor while earning a BFA degree from N.Y. Tech. After graduating, he moved to California and worked in the television and film business for over twenty years. “to live at the mouth of rivers” is Lorenzo’s second novel. His first novel: “Accidents of Birth” was published in 2001. Michael lives in Ojai, California.