Rick Harsch

A reading by Chris Robinson of Rick Harsch's masterpiece? Most agree. Although he might have two and the rest aren't far behind.

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Now available from:

https://zerogrampress.com/2022/01/26/the-manifold-destiny-of-eddie-vegas/… (más)

There was such a man.

Three decades ago, there was, in far-away Slovenia, a self-made businessman with presidential ambitions, orating to his fellow-citizens with a monkey on his shoulder.
He was killed. Someone shot him down, just like the Kennedy's. They caught the suspect; a drunk. Intoxicated he confessed; sober he denied. But he went to prison all the same.
And the Monkey, asks the narrator, where was it when the fatal shot rung? Did it call in sick that day ?

So begins Rick Harsch's novel "Kramberger with Monkey", a wild and runaway exploration on political murders, rogue reporters, innocent scapegoats, invisible hitmen, murdering chimps, seedy politicians, ludicrous conspiracy theories, emerging democracies and coagulating autocracies.

In 44 dazzling funny chapters, and with a handful of devilishly selected scenes ( both true and fictional ), the author reminds us of the senselessness of the human comedy played out in an indifferent world.

As always with Harsch : dark entertainment shedding light.… (más)

Five Stars. This is a wonderful short novel, a "tavern confession" with a deliciously cruel twist. Harsch has made my (very small) list of favorite contemporary writers on the strength of this book and his much larger, much more pyrotechnic Manifold Destiny of Eddie Vegas. Chris Via in his afterword drops names like Aicher, Camus, Krasznahorkai, Miller (Henry), Celine, and Gaddis; all more or less apt, evocative, and surprisingly NOT hyperbolic quality-comparisons. But the book to me was more redolent of Danilo Kis (setting), Victor Serge (the narrator's politics), and a dash of Thomas Bernhard (only a dash though, for the rage and for the role of the foehn-like burja). Situated thus, can a contemporary American author you've never heard of hang? Briefly, yes. Really. Harsch is good. He's got the chops. He's far from gelded (that's for you, Rick. -Bill from MS) and despite the prominent mentions of the Iowa Writer's Workshop in association with his online "brand," this is not "MFA fiction." Far from it. Harsch is a real writer writing real books. Let those with ears to hear, hear. Besides, acquiring them is fun as hell. Happy hunting!

Parenthetically, it holds within it the best anti-Venice tract I think I've ever read… (más)