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.