The Fake Muse
-
- 10,99 €
-
- 10,99 €
Publisher Description
Winners of the Inaugural Spain-USA Foundation Translation Award
Infused with the spirit of pulp fiction, b-movies, zines, and punk rock, The Fake Muse is a linguistic tour-de-force from the author of The Adventures and Misadventures of the Extraordinary and Admirable Joan Orpí, Conquistador and Founder of New Catalonia.
The book opens by introducing us, one by one, to an array of troubled characters, each with their own typographical voice. There’s Johnny (an Aries) who turns into a vampire at a showing of Nosferatu, there’s Meritxell (a Leo) who falls in love with a giant mutant hamster-philosopher, Josep (Cancer) who is also known as the “King Kong of the Bronx,” and Amanda aka Maryjane (Scorpio) who has had it with the abuse she’s suffered at the hands of the . . . author, Max Besora (Aquarius), and who is ready to take whatever action necessary.
Wildly inventive, with each character’s vignette more hilarious and explosive than the last, The Fake Muse weaves these stories together into a thrilling cinema-like production à la Sonic Youth meets Quentin Tarantino, raising questions about power structures, victimization, and the role of the author in bringing it all to life.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this spirited and unhinged romp from Besora (The Adventures and Misadventures of the Extraordinary and Admirable Joan Orpí, Conquistador and Founder of New Catalonia), giant mutant hamsters revolt against mankind, and a bald man transforms into a rampaging King Kong. The story takes place somewhere called the "valley of the bronx," where, in the first section, Besora introduces such miscreants as Johnny Dynamite, who watches the 1922 film Nosferatu so many times that he becomes a vampire, and J.R., a UFO nut who's abducted and probed by aliens, after which he concludes, "faith is a question of taste." There's also a well-read dog named Molecule who witnesses his devout Catholic owner molest his daughters, Amanda Jane, 17, and Isabel II, 13; and an author named Max Besora who tortures a critic who doesn't understand his work. The second section takes the form of a pornographic chamber play in which all the characters meet and have sex. In the third and final section, the fictional Besora writes, "The excessive rules and codes in a hypercontrolled society like ours can only lead to this kind of psychotic behavior." When viewed as an act of resistance against literary and societal conventions, this scorching novel offers plenty of fun. Adventurous readers will admire Besora's moxie.
