Kramberger with Monkey by Rick Harsch

 

picture by Natasha Juhnov

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.

The Manifold Destiny of Eddie Vegas by Rick Harsch

I've had the pleasure to be an early reader of Rick Harsch's latest novel "The manifold destiny of Eddie Vegas”. It is an exceptionally well written and entertaining book with a theme that will certainly unsettle the Reader with its terrible truths.

While “The Manifold Destiny” is written for the experienced reader of sophisticate taste, Rick Harsch, devoid of the usual authorial arrogance, respects and is kind to his audience. Even if his book is written in an elaborate language and artfully crafted sentences there is always sufficient “story" to pique your curiosity and enough entertaining things unfolding on the pages to keep you reading all along the 700 pages. That and the manageable length of each chapter is a relief from the doorstoppers which seem to be so fashionable nowadays! Unlike the Gaddises, the Wallaces and other Don Dellilo behemoths, Harsch's works come in an acceptable and digestible word - count format. 

In the "Manifold Destiny" two storylines develop parallel to each other. Both narrative arcs are separated by a few hundred years but merge towards each other as the narration reaches the end. One storyline develops in the present and follows two young men on their peregrinations between Europe and the USA, with the occasional flash-back to recent history: Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan. Both men wrestle with father - issues at the same time their fathers struggle with their own toxic legacy.

The second storyline describes the adventures of the earlier forefathers of the main character, each of them a witness of, and a minor player in those bygone periods of heroic Americana myth: The Mountain Men, the Oregon trail, the Gold rush, the Indian wars, the Boot-legging...

Harsch debunks these historical and heroically chunks of Americana by reminding the reader that what drives these “heroic times” is nothing more than opportunism, greed, violence, racism, genocide and a continent-wide ecocide. The chapters playing out in the "present time" (Afghanistan, Iraq and Vietnam) do not need to be demythologized as they are remembered in our collective memory as violent moments causing enormous damages to indigenous populations. Still, here too, Harsch digs up lesser known horrific facts to avoid any possible tendency to describe war as heroic: Psychological warfare in Vietnam, Commercial competition of the private military militias in the Iraq, war crimes in Afghanistan and the blind terror of the all-seeing drones.

Harsch is at times funny, sad, angry or serious, but the total world view resulting from all this is bleak. The characters seem to move around on the whim and without clear goals. As already made clear in the witty title of the book, man’s destiny, (if destiny there is), or multiple destinies are largely dependent on the roll of the dice or the shuffle of the cards. 

The metaphor of poker, or gambling in general, is seeping through all chapters.  That one finds himself in an uncomfortable situation is often caused by a random chain of events.

"Fucking Keno" is after all the memorable first and damning opening sentence.

The feature of this novel, most likely to delight even the most blasé reader, is Rick Harsch exciting writing. Harsch is a true word - wizard, a sentence - crafter of rare talent. Cunningly and with a permanent twinkle in the eye he hand-picks words, kneads them to his liking and assemble them in elaborate phrases. His recounting of the history of the American West, using a vast array of highly sophisticated narrative technique has something highly eclectic and comic at the same time. Imagine James Joyce rephrasing the stories of Fennimore Cooper, De Lillo editing the action scenes written by Sebastian Junger or Gaddis correcting Raymond Chandler. Understandably, it is not an easy book, it is after all aimed at the more experienced readers.  Any confidence with the literary techniques of American Pomo or Modernism will help appreciate the skills deployed in the novel. Reading notes are the “rigeur" for those who intend to fully enjoy the read. 

And a great read it is. Harsch shows he is really a Master of the Word. At key moments of the novel, Harsch stops assembling sentences and offers the reader only words. Words in a series of lists; multiple page long lists of seemingly random words, you are likely to skim to proceed for further impatient reading. But these lists, which should be read attentively, preferably viva voce as in a religious litany, contain more than the eye first notices. 

The last list, when it’s terrible secret dawns on you, will certainly shock you.

Rick Harsch has with his "Manifold destiny of Eddy Vegas” written a Masterpiece and as far as I am concerned, as good a candidate for the “Great American Novel” as any other more celebrated book.

You might argue that Harsch is lesser known than his best-selling peers.

That’s my point: 

So was Melville in his days.

Highly recommended !

Rick Harsch : Skulls of Istria

Pieter Claesz : Vanitas

Rick Harsch's truly excellent “Skulls of Istria” is a book that deserves to be read. This thin novel with less than 150 pages and only 6 or 7 chapters demands but a minimal effort and time investment, say an afternoon read, a few hours on the plane, for what I consider a huge return.

The story too is very readable. I mean by that, that from the first page, the author grabs your attention, you are sucked into the narrative and before you know it, captivated, you keep on reading. Or listening…, for that is what you actually do, you listen to a narrator babbling away while he drinks glass after glass of a local spirit.

The narrator, a self - exiled American academic, a mock historian he calls himself, speaks to the reader from his regular watering hole, a sea front bar in the Slovanian city of Piran. He has taken refuge from the terrible Burja, a legendary storm-wind that rages outside over the Adriatic Sea.

As his voice drones away, occasionally interrupted by his regular trip to the bar’s toilet to relieve himself, you install yourself in comfortable passive listening. But that may be a dangerous lapse of attention for you should listen carefully; close reading is required. The story the historian tells might after all not be as innocent as it is narrated and the steady downing of brandy might not only help the narrator to find his words but maybe also give him the necessary courage to proceed.

The American is basically and safely speaking to himself, for the other person at his table appears to be dead drunk and the other people present in the bar mind their own business playing cards. Anyway, nobody is eavesdropping, and we start following the narrative…

From innocent and funny anecdotes about the excesses of the Burja wind, the storyteller comes to tell us bits of the very violent history of the area, mingling it with his own confessional story of how he washed up in this coastal Istrian town. The man’s story consists of different threads that loop and snake around each other : the reason of his self inflicted exile, his relationship with his traveling companion, his passion for a gypsy women and his desperate search for a historic topic for a book he wants to write.

All this is recounted in a succulent flow of words, full of puns, clever wordplays, literary trouvailles and newly chiseled porte-manteau words. Not only does the narrator’s story turn out to be more than just interesting, it is darkly sarcastic and funny too.

As the reader starts to unravel the separate threads of the narrative yarn, a Hitchcockian structure appears that increases the worrisome mood permeating the pages of the book. The historian seems to have forgotten that what is the past today was the actuality of yesterday. In an area with a history of violent ethnic war, this is a warning not to miss.

Hell under one’s feet, might be but just a drop away.

A must read.

“A circumnavigation through Maritime History” by Rick Harsch

With a few friends I have been privileged to read the unpublished book “A circumnavigation through Maritime History” by LibraryThing author Rick Harsch. 

I say privileged because it is a rare occasion that a published writer allows you to have a look at his work before it is even printed. More than a sneak preview, Rick allowed us, even insisted, that we would comment each time a new chapter was posted.

RH is an American writer exiled to Slovenia. He lives in Izola which is a pretty cool place to live. (especially during the summer months). We don’t know much about him, except that Rick loves India and that he loves snakes too! Most of what we do know about him, you can read on his profile page on LT. You can also try to imagine who he is by following his active participation on the social network or read one of his books. “Arjun and the Good Snake” for instance which is an Ophidiological Account of Six Weeks in India without Alcohol, or “The Driftless Zone”, or even “Billy Verite”, or “The Sleep of Aborigines” and of course Kramberger z opico.

When Rick asked us to comment on his chapters, I did. Yes, I am that kind of guy, always a good public, but with some hindsight, and now that I have read the entire book, I understand that it was not wise to comment as long as the last page was not turned. 

Why? Well quite simply, because it is a history book on navigation like you have never read before. Of course not, Rick would add, because it is not a history book on navigation, it is a circumnavigation through History and through Navigation and if you never read a circumnavigation, well this is your chance.

I was wrong-footed ( Yes I am that kind of a reader ) by the introduction that the book was a result of a cooperation with the Slovene University who has classes on Maritime matters. Now Slovenia might be a cool place, but not as cool as Rick himself, so, for whatever the book turned out to be, I cannot imagine that it would ever be used on the curriculum of the University of Ljubljana. If it would, then Slovenia is an even cooler place then I thought it was.

The book opens with considering the sailing crafts and the social conditions of poor Indian fisherman on the west coast of India….today. Normally a Maritime history book would start in the Mediterranean, many centuries ago, so I was surprised, but only a bit, because I know other books on Maritime History who begin like that: from the present to the past and back. 

Recovering from my surprise, I was immediately enthused by the fact that Rick was original in his approach and he got immediately my full attention. 

I gave my opinion on certain unimportant matters (Yes am I that kind of guy ) but kept reading through the captivating pages of that first chapter. I forgot to tell you that Rick writes extremely well and that he is very funny, funny that is in a cool acid way. Very entertaining, believe me. 

Rick started to explain that there was a civilization in India, even before the Portuguese arrived, there was even civilization in East – Africa and even in Madagascar. The true Barbarians, Rick reminded us were the fucking Portuguese. Well he did not exactly use that word, but we understood immediately that this was how he meant it. Yes, Rick is rather cool in this cool – acid way. Now I will not hide that I was shocked by Harsch’s harsh words, not because he was so biased against the fucking Portuguese, ( he did not really say it like that but, you know what I mean ) but because you have to be objective in a history book, especially so in a Maritime history book. I carefully reminded him that he could not do that, but Rick said that he had decided to say it like it was and that was it. 

Of course, I was a bit frustrated ( I am that kind of a guy ) but I did not know at that moment that I was reading a circumnavigation. And so I had to read that the heroes of navigational history were opportunist, murderers and conquerors and even in some cases bloodthirsty sadists. Not nice of Rick to remind us of that, but deep down we know he is right. Rick would make sure that we would not skip the paragraphs which did not suit our moods. 

Still I tried to make some intelligent remarks, like there were no such things as 18 m waves in the Arabian Sea, as if it would matter if a wave was 12 , 14, 16 or even 36 meters if you tried to cross the Arabian sea on a Dhow lashed together with ropes.

By now, I had understood that I was not reading a Maritime History but a genuine circumnavigation and so I shut up and listened.

Plain stealing preceded Trade at sea and Trade included much stealing. War at sea was so cruel it could be funny. Human condition at Sea was utterly absurd that beneath the macho gloss of that Sailors world, true men sought comfort with each other. When distant tribes finally met, they would more often than not spear, rape bludgeon or set fire to each other and Mabel, the captain’s wife, would fuck the crew… yes right there on the table.

Rick illustrates his book with hagiographic snippets of the lives of Cabeza de Vaca, William Bligh, Captain Cook, Surcouf even and he fears not to delve into the more unknown topics as the Uskoks of Senj and the apogee of the Ragusan system. ( No I will not tell you what it is, you will have to read Rick’s book ).

Rick also reminds us that a few lines of fiction on maritime matters are often more telling than pages of facts and when there are no facts, Rick invents them like when he is the last man standing on the doomed Aurora, and he describes the details he witnessed through his inner eye.

To pepper his text, Rick adds song lyrics like the ones of Gordon Lightfoot or Bob Dylan, he quotes Melville’s Moby Dick, Bligh’s blog ( boat – log ) but also recent newspaper clips. However interesting, there is too much of Bligh’s log in Rick’s book but that is my sole remark.

Rick does not forget to remind us that not only is Maritime terminology a matter of life and death but that each etymologic analysis of a word is in fact a micro summary of Maritime History.

Speaking about summaries, what is this circumnavigation? Rick’s book indeed defies categorization…..”Yes what is it?” , I ask myself . Well written ? Damn yes ! Entertaining ? Highly entertaining ! Very funny even , not only because of Rick’s writing, but also because of his choice of topics and the conclusions he draws! Interesting ? yes yes yes, there are so many things which you want to develop, look up, control, compare and maybe that’s how we should understand Rick’s circumnavigation: it is an introduction, a peek allowed to the interested reader of the riches in that vast treasure trove of Maritime History and in that sense, yes it does fit in the University curriculum.

I wish I was one of Rick’s students.