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| 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.
