Richard Bird Baker

Afriation Phobia: a Psycho-phobic Novel Richard Bird Baker

This is perhaps the most unique novel you will ever read. It contains no conventional narrative. The voice that delivers the plot and its messages is the voice the main character constantly hears in his head. The voice constantly speaks in short imperatives, and often separates into two bickering voices. Presenting this mental condition requires second-person writing, something rarely found in fiction.

An afriation is an organization or institution that forces one to constantly associate with people one wouldn't choose for company. This novel's main character is not an easy person to like, but is very easy to empathize with. This mentally unsound individual has an excessive fear of "afriats," people we are forced to interact with via an afriation. As a result, he is often a homeless transient feeling forced into being either a trespasser or a vagrant.

The "voice" in our character's mind carries you with him hitchhiking on freeways, hopping freight trains, struggling with employment in a conventional afriation, side-stepping civilization, and going to jail. It follows his thought processes as tension leads to a mental collapse.

This novel is more than a typical action fiction. It presents a unique and valuable insight into our social structure that is yet to be dealt with by social scientists, one that is based on the types of social interactions we encounter.