John Bentley Mays
Essential Prose - Book 181 - The Occidental Hotel
Summary
A brooding fugitive hides out in a crumbling hotel that was once filled with celebrities enjoying the successes of postwar America. He is a racist with a criminal past, an anti-hero who reflects on the ruins of the South and simultaneously on the life of a German performance artist called "Jupp". The fictional Jupp is a thinly-veiled cipher for the late real-life German artist, Joseph Beuys, and the photos in the novel are photos of the performances by the controversial Beuys. At once echoing the moody worlds of W. G. Sebald and incorporating outrageous elements of pulp fiction, this novel of dark romanticism is not for optimists seeking redemption, but for those willing to take a look into a searing heart of darkness.
Listen on
More in series
Show series
Essential Prose
Sarah Xerar Murphy
From the publisher
Show publisher
Sarah Xerar Murphy
Essential Prose
M.S.W., RSW Annette Kussin
Sarah Xerar Murphy
From the same authors
