Watch - by Keith Buckley (Paperback)

About the Book

"When John Harvey's watch stops working on the morning of February 3rd, 1987, he has an epiphany. It occurs to him that every personal trauma he is trying to forget has had one thing in common: they all occurred at some point on the face of that very watch. The loss of his job, the death of his child, Zola's suicide, all contained right there in that tiny circle of finite numbers. So he smashes the watch. Problem solved. But when John steps out the door to make his daily trek to the local bar as a man newly freed from the tyrannies of time, he is met by a snowstorm that renders him completely blind, and a walk that should have taken just a few minutes begins to feel like years. Because as John Harvey wanders alone through the snow with no sun nor sign to guide him, the twenty-eight year old misanthrope is confronted by the vivid manifestation of every ghost he has devoted his lonely life to avoiding. In the storm he is forced to finally accept the suffering he has been hiding from. In the storm he is forced to understand that the only thing worse than never truly seeing is never truly being seen. In the storm he is forced, for once, to watch"--Provided by publisher.

Book Synopsis

When John Harvey's watch stops working on the morning of February 3rd, 1987, he has an epiphany. It occurs to him that every personal trauma he is trying to forget has had one thing in common: they all occurred at some point on the face of that very watch. The loss of his job, the death of his child, Zola's suicide, all contained right there in that tiny circle of finite numbers. So he smashes the watch. Problem solved.

But when John steps out the door to make his daily trek to the local bar as a man newly freed from the tyrannies of time, he is met by a snowstorm that renders him completely blind, and a walk that should have taken just a few minutes begins to feel like years. Because as John Harvey wanders alone through the snow with no sun nor sign to guide him, the twenty-eight year old misanthrope is confronted by the vivid manifestation of every ghost he has devoted his lonely life to avoiding. In the storm he is forced to finally accept the suffering he has been hiding from. In the storm he is forced to understand that the only thing worse than never truly seeing is never truly being seen. In the storm he is forced, for once, to watch.

Review Quotes

Praise for Scale:
"...an earnest portrait of a man struggling between the contrasts of mind and heart."
―The Hundreds

"...your heart will melt alongside Goldman as his life explodes and you will cry when he can't figure out what is actually wrong and you will smile at the minutia of his own happiness. Scale will have you realize yourself."
―Get Alternative

About the Author

KEITH BUCKLEY is the vocalist and lyricist for the critically acclaimed punk rock act Every Time I Die. His first novel, Scale, was released by Rare Bird in 2015. He lives in Buffalo, NY.