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An out-of-work actor accepts the role of a lifetime—sitting soundlessly in a lecture theatre, zipped into a large leather bag—to aid a professor’s psychological experiment. What could possibly go wrong?
In Luke Kennard’s audacious new novel, a penniless and out-of-work actor picks up a job working for Dr. Blend, a university professor who is conducting a psychological experiment. How will Dr. Blend’s students react to someone zipped into an oversized bag, sitting at the back of the lecture hall over a series of Fall lectures? The role, eagerly accepted, soon has unexpected consequences. A professor of post-humanism develops research questions of her own—in particular, can you love someone secreted away inside a black bag?—and the actor’s childhood friend forms a vision for monetizing this new situation . . .
"The question of what to do with my weekends now that I am gainfully employed as a black bag is a tricky one."
Kennard writes books that should be pretentious, but just aren't. Like this, which is like a version of Blind Date directed by Franz Kafka.
They're absurd, wickedly smart, full with ideas and symbolism to make you think - existing on the precarious line between overt preaching and layered, metaphorical prose to create the perfect balance of entertaining writing and social commentary.
His characters are always a strange pastiche of humanity, heightened and elaborate individuals that capture an aspect of life and hold it under a microscope to really dissect it. Take our narrator, holding us at a distance, their storytelling just formal enough to make us uncomfortable but personal enough to allow us to slowly see them develop from the archetype of the insufferable penniless artist into a slightly less insufferable nuanced person with a new definition of the self. From their quiet existence in lectures, to a very strange, sexually charged potential romance - to their out of bag life, each page moves us forward and brings something that makes it impossible to stop reading.
"If you met anyone as whiny, disobliging and egocentric as the average narrator of a novel in real life you'd find them unbearable."
They lead us in a very loose narrative through their odd experience, thoughts and realities flowing into one another, making a quick pace that switches between these in a way that almost seems haphazard. They speak right to the reader with a first person perspective, the fourth wall almost transparent.
We're invited to step into his mind as his two lives begin to blur together. An actor, someone fuelled by external praise, by pretending and vanity, now living a life of quiet reflection now living a life of quiet reflection, of anonymity - the contrast was delicious.
Their life in the bag not only provides an interesting reading experience, but draws out so many questions that makes this either the best or worst book to read at book club. Does our superficial perceptions affect how we relate to people? Who are we beyond how we're perceived? Do we treat people worse when there's anonymity? How do we relate to ourselves without the opinions of others? And when sex, power and looks is stripped away, what does the concept of masculinity really mean?
Stylistically, this may be a little divisive as I'm also one of those people who isn't a fan of books that omit speech marks, but after a while I was so transfixed in the story that I honestly stopped caring. An irreverent existential crisis hidden under an off-kilter romcom and journey of self-discovery.
"There are things, he says, that are worth losing yourself over."
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
- Black Bag will be available from March 17th 2026 with Zando Projects. I received a reviewers copy of this title.
- Contains sensitive content including recreational drug use and graphic sexual content.
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