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Amerikan Krazy
The novel the shattered American psyche has been waiting for.
To shoot or not to shoot?
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.
Despite escaping neo-fascist “Amerika” to remote reaches south of the border, Herbert Horn, a wounded Marine vet, cannot escape his lifelong preoccupation with the personal meaning of JFK’s brutal public execution and why he failed to sabotage an evil empire by assassinating the Presidential candidate Senator Honus T. Rhinelander Junior at Founding Father Land Theme Park when he had a golden opportunity. As the years pass, Horn’s guilt deepens as he ponders the human suffering that would have been averted had he found the courage to fend off his fair-haired lady friend’s pleas and get off a kill shot. With every egregious occurrence such as the Rhinelander financed rape of Costa Rica; the Rhinelander-enabled Taliban takeover of Kyrgyzstan; a Rhinelander presidential successor installed by fiat of the Supreme Court; and redistribution of America’s wealth to a trans-national corporate cabal, Herb Horn’s remorse regarding his cowardice at the moment of truth escalates in an explosive manner.
Amerikan Krazy interprets the meaning of power in post modern Amerika. By turning political writing into art, Henry James Korn begins where Jules Verne, George Orwell, and Edward Abbey 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
To shoot or not to shoot?
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.
Despite escaping neo-fascist “Amerika” to remote reaches south of the border, Herbert Horn, a wounded Marine vet, cannot escape his lifelong preoccupation with the personal meaning of JFK’s brutal public execution and why he failed to sabotage an evil empire by assassinating the Presidential candidate Senator Honus T. Rhinelander Junior at Founding Father Land Theme Park when he had a golden opportunity. As the years pass, Horn’s guilt deepens as he ponders the human suffering that would have been averted had he found the courage to fend off his fair-haired lady friend’s pleas and get off a kill shot. With every egregious occurrence such as the Rhinelander financed rape of Costa Rica; the Rhinelander-enabled Taliban takeover of Kyrgyzstan; a Rhinelander presidential successor installed by fiat of the Supreme Court; and redistribution of America’s wealth to a trans-national corporate cabal, Herb Horn’s remorse regarding his cowardice at the moment of truth escalates in an explosive manner.
Amerikan Krazy interprets the meaning of power in post modern Amerika. By turning political writing into art, Henry James Korn begins where Jules Verne, George Orwell, and Edward Abbey 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
262 pages, Hardcover
First published February 22, 2016
2 people are currently reading
146 people want to read
About the author
Henry James Korn
15 books7 followersHenry James Korn's debut novel Amerikan Krazy is coming on February 22, 2016.
Korn has written about art, sports, popular culture, media and history for magazines and newspapers and his stories have been published in fiction anthologies and literary magazines. Korn was awarded a writing fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.
From 2008-13, Korn served as Orange County Great Park principal planning and program development specialist for arts, culture and history where he organized festivals and exhibitions and guided planning for the Palm Court Arts Complex and Great Park Gallery. Korn previously served as Director of the Poway Center for the Performing Arts Foundation; Director of Arts and Culture, City of Beverly Hills; President of Guild Hall of East Hampton (Eastern Long Island's cultural center); Cultural Affairs Manager for the City of Irvine, Arts Commission Director for the City of Santa Monica; Executive Director, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and Administrator of New York's Jewish Museum.
Mr. Korn holds a B.A. in Liberal Arts from Johns Hopkins University where he edited the undergraduate newspaper.
Korn has written about art, sports, popular culture, media and history for magazines and newspapers and his stories have been published in fiction anthologies and literary magazines. Korn was awarded a writing fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.
From 2008-13, Korn served as Orange County Great Park principal planning and program development specialist for arts, culture and history where he organized festivals and exhibitions and guided planning for the Palm Court Arts Complex and Great Park Gallery. Korn previously served as Director of the Poway Center for the Performing Arts Foundation; Director of Arts and Culture, City of Beverly Hills; President of Guild Hall of East Hampton (Eastern Long Island's cultural center); Cultural Affairs Manager for the City of Irvine, Arts Commission Director for the City of Santa Monica; Executive Director, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and Administrator of New York's Jewish Museum.
Mr. Korn holds a B.A. in Liberal Arts from Johns Hopkins University where he edited the undergraduate newspaper.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
March 15, 2019
Because Henry James Korn is part Jean Shepherd, part Kurt Vonnegut, and part Hieronymous Bosch, his debut novel Amerikan Krazy is very serious fun. One might ask how is this possible but it’s part of Korn’s magic to make darkness entertaining. As one of Amerikan Krazy's PTSD afflicted protagonists observes, “History returns, not as tragedy but as cartoon.” While reading this novel you’ll shudder at how cartoons are depicted as beginning the process of infantilization that sustains our corrupt political system. But you’ll also experience delight as this master 'visioneer' takes you on a comic- book ride through two dysfunctional families, the Vietnam War, more presidential infamy than you thought existed, and a gut-spilling exposure of the way wealth and power promise us Disney fairytale castles but give us lies, sawdust and rage. Is it any wonder that half of Amerika has elected as President the biggest baddest (and I do mean worst) political cartoon of all time?
For more than forty years a mystique has surrounded Henry James Korn's writing, but I won’t repeat the praise heaped on his short fiction, creative nonfiction, and experimental writing since the 1970’s by authors, critics, and culture analysts. Suffice it to say that those lucky enough to have shared Korn's surrealistic visions have long thought of him as among America’s most under-appreciated writers, as well as an author from whom a sustained work of imagination has long been anticipated. Amerikan Krazy fulfills the complex promise of Korn’s earlier work.
If Korn's short stories collected in Exact Change and A Difficult Act To Follow were playful and touching, Amerikan Krazy is all that and unpredictably powerful too. Be careful. This book might deliver a jolt of searing rearrangement to your understanding of the roles of government, business, and entertainment in the United States, along with a hard-to-shake suspicion that the political history closest to us is one we don't understand. Amerkan Krazy shows us two central characters who come of age in the 1960’s and never recover from their choices. Will you empathize with Dutch Heindel’s murderously rebellious cynicism? Or with Herb Horn's idealism that survives only because of a delusion so strong it tempts him to contemplate an assassination? And where can we run to when we learn that Mickey Mouse and Bongo the Bear are tools of a heartless twentieth century mind-control experiment?
Korn’s narrative strategy focusing on the politics of pop culture is seductive. Who didn’t like Ike? And who can help but sympathize with little Herb Horn who loved cartoons and the news and convinced his antagonistic parents to vote for JFK. But Herb’s will to goodness gets him in big trouble when he uses his college newspaper to call Lyndon Baines Johnson a murderer, and he’s never not in trouble again – except maybe when he’s high – until he makes a final agonizing payment on the dreams that sustained him through a damaged life of relentless insights into what’s actually going on behind the scenes. Highly recommended for those who think the whole Amerikan project has turned into Oz, and who are up for an entertaining tour of the madness of it all.
For more than forty years a mystique has surrounded Henry James Korn's writing, but I won’t repeat the praise heaped on his short fiction, creative nonfiction, and experimental writing since the 1970’s by authors, critics, and culture analysts. Suffice it to say that those lucky enough to have shared Korn's surrealistic visions have long thought of him as among America’s most under-appreciated writers, as well as an author from whom a sustained work of imagination has long been anticipated. Amerikan Krazy fulfills the complex promise of Korn’s earlier work.
If Korn's short stories collected in Exact Change and A Difficult Act To Follow were playful and touching, Amerikan Krazy is all that and unpredictably powerful too. Be careful. This book might deliver a jolt of searing rearrangement to your understanding of the roles of government, business, and entertainment in the United States, along with a hard-to-shake suspicion that the political history closest to us is one we don't understand. Amerkan Krazy shows us two central characters who come of age in the 1960’s and never recover from their choices. Will you empathize with Dutch Heindel’s murderously rebellious cynicism? Or with Herb Horn's idealism that survives only because of a delusion so strong it tempts him to contemplate an assassination? And where can we run to when we learn that Mickey Mouse and Bongo the Bear are tools of a heartless twentieth century mind-control experiment?
Korn’s narrative strategy focusing on the politics of pop culture is seductive. Who didn’t like Ike? And who can help but sympathize with little Herb Horn who loved cartoons and the news and convinced his antagonistic parents to vote for JFK. But Herb’s will to goodness gets him in big trouble when he uses his college newspaper to call Lyndon Baines Johnson a murderer, and he’s never not in trouble again – except maybe when he’s high – until he makes a final agonizing payment on the dreams that sustained him through a damaged life of relentless insights into what’s actually going on behind the scenes. Highly recommended for those who think the whole Amerikan project has turned into Oz, and who are up for an entertaining tour of the madness of it all.
August 11, 2016
Amerikan Krazy is a wonderful addition to Henry James Korn's oeuvre. It is laugh out loud funny because the alternative is to shed many tears for what the United States is/has become.
I would guess that this book will be one of those that people either love or hate on the whole. Partly because of the over-the-top trippy aspect of the writing and partly because of reader's political/social/cultural leanings. I do think that even those who might not agree with the assessment that comes through in this satire will be given a lot to think about if they are willing to do so. If they aren't willing to do so then I have a pretty good idea who they may be voting for in 2016.
This isn't an easy read if one actually engages with the book simply because Korn illustrates what we are then supposed to ponder. If we simply read passively and expect epiphanies then we will be disappointed, our task in this novel is to engage and think. Korn's task seems to be to keep the story moving along. So it is up to us to slow down and engage. Whether you agree with what is presented or not the reward for engaging will be great.
I would recommend this to all Americans and for those in other countries who are curious about the unique form of American insanity they are seeing in the news and where it came from.
Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.
I would guess that this book will be one of those that people either love or hate on the whole. Partly because of the over-the-top trippy aspect of the writing and partly because of reader's political/social/cultural leanings. I do think that even those who might not agree with the assessment that comes through in this satire will be given a lot to think about if they are willing to do so. If they aren't willing to do so then I have a pretty good idea who they may be voting for in 2016.
This isn't an easy read if one actually engages with the book simply because Korn illustrates what we are then supposed to ponder. If we simply read passively and expect epiphanies then we will be disappointed, our task in this novel is to engage and think. Korn's task seems to be to keep the story moving along. So it is up to us to slow down and engage. Whether you agree with what is presented or not the reward for engaging will be great.
I would recommend this to all Americans and for those in other countries who are curious about the unique form of American insanity they are seeing in the news and where it came from.
Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.
June 16, 2016
I am honestly unsure how to review this book. Amerikan Krazy is like one big psychedelic-satire trip through the back half of the 20th centrury. If the goal is to make the reader deeply uncomfortable with the intersection of current American politics, big business, the military industrial complex, media and entertainment, mental illness, foreign policy and military incursions, then this work is a resounding success. It is unlike anything I've read in a long time. It's not for the faint of heart.
That said, if I had a physical copy of the novel, I would gladly pass it on to a friend.
That said, if I had a physical copy of the novel, I would gladly pass it on to a friend.
July 29, 2016
I got an ARC of this book through NetGalley. I requested it, hoping for something along the lines of the show The Amerikans. Unfortunately it read more like a boring biography. If I can't get into a book by the time I'm 25% of the way through, I'm done. Sadly, that's what happened here. There are plenty of places for great fictional expansion, but the author seemed more interested in just moving things along.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews