Lacking Character
by Curtis White
2021-01-05 17:07:00
Curtis White''s long-awaited return to fiction reminds us that the founder of one of American literature''s most vibrant and innovative movements is still the King of "transcendental buffoonery." The story begins when a masked man appears in the...
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Curtis White''s long-awaited return to fiction reminds us that the founder of one of American literature''s most vibrant and innovative movements is still the King of "transcendental buffoonery."
The story begins when a masked man appears in the night at the door of the Marquis, proclaiming a matter of life and death: "I stand falsely accused of an atrocity!"
Except he''s not, really; he''s just trying to get the attention of the Marquis (a video game-playing burnout) to help him enroll in some community college vocational classes. And so the exchange gets badly botched, and our masked man is soon lost in a maddening America, encountering its absurdities at every turn, and cursing his cruel fate.
In a time with the crisis du jour, White asks us to remember what it''s like to laugh--to be a little silly even--in order to reclaim what used to be fundamental to us: the strength to create our own worlds.
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