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About The Oxygen Tank
Product Description Benjamin J. Schreiber has left rehab, but isn't out of the woods. His life, plagued by schizophrenic personalities and Tourette's, exists in series of maddening hallucinogenic episodes that combine his deepest insecurities with dark fantasies. In every one of these manic flashes, the same characters appear: Georgie, the alter-ego living in Ben's body, and Claudia, the object of his twisted desires and destructive obsession. In his sickness, Ben writes to his psychiatrist, Dr. C., about these "schizophrenic blue-movie skits and sleazy hardcore porn-flicks", creating with his pen a disturbing window into the psychopathy that controls his every moment. The Oxygen Tank is a dark chronicle of one man's schizophrenia and obsession. In a way no other book on mental illness has done, it provides a direct tap into a disturbing reality (and lack thereof) that tangles love, obsession, hatred, desperation, fear, dominance, and the terrible need to be loved. Review Constructed through a series of interconnected, erotically fueled, hallucinatory episodes involving Jonathan Harnisch's signature character Benjamin J. Schreiber--who, like the author, suffers from schizophrenia and Tourette's syndrome--this nonlinear novel is, on the surface, about struggling with mental health, sexual obsession, and toxic interdependency. But ultimately, this twisted and at times psychopathic story is an intimate journey of self-discovery steeped in existential philosophy. Georgie Gust is Schreiber's alter ego. Gust is obsessed with Claudia Nesbitt --an imaginary construct that is simultaneously his paraplegic lover, a one-night stand, a sexy neighborhood waitress, and his cheating wife, depending on what "schizophrenic sex- and-drug skit" or "sleazy hardcore porn-flick" scenario he is currently immersed in. At the behest of his "psycho brain picker," Dr. C, Schreiber chronicles his fantasies as Gust in meticulous detail by writing them down. In one particularly memorable sequence, Gust is living in a suburban McMansion in New Jersey. With Claudia dead and Gust now married to a shrew of a woman, he secretly opens a wax museum to pay homage to the object of his obsessive affection, who has inexplicably reappeared as an alluring waitress. While not as brilliantly constructed as Harnisch's Lover in the Nobody (2014)--which had a jaw-dropping revelation at novel's end--his latest still delivers, although on a more muted, introspective level. Amid the chaos of Schreiber's life, he--with the help of his psychiatrist--finds an almost Taoist peace of mind through deep self-analysis. "So, Ben, no matter how bad things get, no matter how stupid and ridiculous and absurd the whole world seems, even if the whole world goes crazy--remember, Ben, don't forget to laugh." This is not necessarily an easy read but one that has palpable philosophical weight. Those adventurous enough to follow it to the end, will be rewarded by transformative glimpses into the underlying principles that govern the chaotic world in which we live. -- BlueInk Review A fascinating book that raises questions about the meaning of self and relationships, and is a unique look at love. Hallucinatory and complex, The Oxygen Tank by Jonathan Harnisch delves deeply into an imaginary couple whose relationship's consequences are all too real. Ben Schreiber lives halfway in a dream-world of schizophrenic hallucinations. Some are tortured, some bizarre, and all are centered on his dream woman, Claudia Nesbitt. In them, Ben's alter ego, Georgie Gust, engages in an endless pursuit of his beloved, only for their relationship to shatter again and again. Through every possible scenario, including abuse and death and sex, Ben chases Georgie chasing Claudia, always seeking an answer to his own inner turmoil. The book is a series of fantasies, each one involving various stages of the relationship between Georgie and Claudia. Throughout, it is unclear whether Claudia herself actually exist
