A Beauty So Loud

A Beauty So Loud is an examination of life in the twenty-first century from three different perspectives, each of which offers a different question: What does it mean to be a man in an age wherein the world has already been conquered, or, what power do rites of passage have in a digital era? What does it mean to be an American in a global society? And, what does it mean to be human when you have been robbed of your humanity? While any one of these questions runs the risk of providing the author an opportunity to stand on a soapbox, the text strives to provide the reader with the material to raise the questions and allow him or her to make personal judgments. The text is largely philosophical, yet not to the point that it is unapproachable. Each character is dealing with an individual existential issue, but each of these issues is relevant to the modern age, and none is presented in a way that isolates the reader. Philosophy aside, the story is an often-brutal exploration of the reality of the man-on-the-street, of the truth that a random conversation with a stranger can provide. The nature of love, alcoholism, rape, negligence, the difference between animal care and animal cruelty, and the psychology of consumption are but a few of the issues that A Beauty So Loud addresses. There is a difference between tragedy and discomfort, and this text seeks to make a solid distinction.