Henry James Korn’s first book, this collection of short form fiction was originally published by Assembling Press in 1974 with an original lithograph cover by photographer and print-maker Scott Hyde.
It now finds a new life in digital form as an e-book. Of particular interest to modern audiences are several clear links from Korn’s late 60’s and early 70’s literary experiments to the anticipated major themes, characters, and plot points in his forthcoming debut novel Amerikan Krazy.
Memorable stories include King Kong in the Kitchen, The Condemned of Altoona, and One Thing Perfectly Clear. It also contains one of his earliest modular experimental efforts The Pontoon Manifesto which was published separately in a variety of formats.
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“To make pressure cooker bombs, or not make pressure cooker bombs?”
“To embrace or spurn a blond beauty who might blow their cover if they let her into the leadership of the Central Committee?”
These are the questions that haunt the savage soldiers that comprise the San Diego 3, a trio of PTSD-scarred, love-starved Vietnam veterans who are on the trail of President Kennedy’s killers while serving as East Asia Veterans Against Violence activists and founders of a commune in Mexico. Amerikan Krazy interprets the meaning of power in post modern Amerika. By turning political writing into art, Henry James Korn’s first novel begins where George Orwell left off.
REVIEWS AND COMMENTS
“Henry James Korn is one of our very best absurdist writers and Amerikan Krazy has all the best characteristics of Heller’s Catch 22, Jack Kerouac at his best like Dr. Sax and Robert Coover’s Public Burning.”
-Dr. Walter James Miller, Professor of Literature, New York University and host of Reader’s Almanac
“Korn’s Amerikan Krazy is a zany, hard-charging, and tasty concoction laced with substantial doses of passionate and legitimate rage regarding the maddening features of contemporary American life combining darkness and hilarity in the manner of David Lynch and Tim Burton.”
-Dr. Spencer C. Olin, Professor Emeritus, History, University of California, Irvine
“Henry James Korn’s novel Amerikan Krazy makes sense out of the absurd conditions of contemporary life. Are prevailing authorities engendering paranoia by manipulating power, spectacle, violence and social status? Does fear assist a disloyal opposition in recovering its sanity? These are among the central questions lurking within this hilarious and hallucinatory post 1984 quest for truth.”
-Martha Wilson, artist and Founding Director, Franklin Furnace
“Amerikan Krazy delivers a fearless, wildly creative, and rollicking ride through an absurd yet painfully familiar landscape of American culture from post-WW II to a not-too-distant future. The novel’s vibrant historical context features the illusions and disillusions of a PTSD-stricken protagonist who vows to tilt at all available windmills, giving us laugh-out-loud moments as well as those of wincing recognition of our culture’s corporate capture. Fueled by passion and driven by a playful rage, the novel smacks ruling-class bastards right proper.”
– Dr. Patricia Hartz, Lecturer and Writing Program Director Emeritus, Department of Humanities, University of California, Irvine
RELATED TITLES
Amerikan Krazy follows in the storied tradition of some of the following works:
