Unfinished World — John Olson

Unfinished World is a novel of cosmic gestation. It focuses on the interface between the personal and the universal, the idea that we are the universe creating itself, suggesting that our individual awareness is part of a larger, universal consciousness, that our thoughts and experiences contribute to the ongoing process of the universe understanding itself, a deepsense of interconnectedness that carries you everywhere like a feeling. It is also keenly alert to the ongoing shifts in the human paradigm and the volatility and precariousness of ourcurrent dilemma. Much of the background for these reflections occurs in a trip to Kauai in post-pandemic 2023, a place of uncanny and beauty and serenity. It includes such universalsas Mahler's Adagietto, Willie Dixon's Wang Dang Doodle, the Dirac equation, and a toddler kicking the back of one's seat on a long flight over the Pacific while trying to read MadLove by surrealist poet André Breton.