PETROLEUM TRANSFER ENGINEER BY RICHARD KLIN

A NOVEL (PUBLISH DATE, MARCH 2018)
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SYNOPSIS
South Jersey, circa 1983: A distinctive sub-region, as if a section of the south or midwest was grafted onto the east
coast. Francis, a defrocked college student who has made a mess of both his scholastic career and his life, finds
himself back home at the Jersey shore and gainfully employed at a sprawling, subterranean gas station. Petroleum Transfer Engineer is not just Francis’s story, but is also the chronicle of a time and place that is slowly
disappearing: The farmland, little eateries, and raucous bars giving way to development; the louche resort of
Atlantic City morphing into its soulless casino incarnation. Via the pages of Petroleum Transfer Engineer,
Francis must navigate a terrain that is simultaneously familiar and off-kilter. And--somehow--he must struggle
to piece his life back together.
REVIEW
"Richard Klin masterfully details... the ramshackle world of a young, part-time New Jersey turnpike gas station attendant--
an attendant who sees his place as temporary, a purgatory of sorts, courtesy of his breakdown and and premature departure from
the hallowed halls of academe. The pace of the novel flows to a brisk and whimsical beat....the beautiful rhythm of Klin's quick
traveling prose and wit....Klin's Petroleum Transfer Engineer balances itself on a satirical seesaw, displaying adept craftwork
to maintain the razor's edge. Within the bindings, the reader will find just enough realism to relate to and just enough oddity
to entertain." --American Book Review
ABOUT RICHARD KLIN
Richard Klin lives in New York’s Hudson Valley. He is the author of Something to Say: Thoughts on
Art and Politics in America and Abstract Expressionism For Beginners. His work has been featured on
NPR’s All Things Considered and has appeared in the Atlantic, the Brooklyn Rail, the Forward,
Akashic Books’ “Thursdaze” series, and others.