The Fan Man

I haven't laughed this gleefully at a book since I read Gravity's Rainbow (yes, I'm one of those people). Horse Badorties is one of the most singularly unique and memorable characters in literature, reminiscent of later free-spirited slackers like The Dude and Kramer, but with his own particular brand of lunacy. If he were a real person, Hoarders could devote an entire season to him, and his overriding obsession is finding 15-year-old girls to comprise his "Love Chorus," and bringing medieval church music (set to the pitch of Japanese handheld, battery-powered electric fans, no less) to the masses via a nationally televised concert, but his ADD tendencies and perpetually stoned headspace get in the way (although surprisingly not that show more much). So, in other words, it's a pretty weird book, but funny, very funny. And I'll never look at the word "dorky" the same way again. show less

Kurt Vonnegut, in his introduction to the edition I read, is careful to point out that this is not a book for everybody. "One must understand that in this book Badorties [the Fan Man of the title] is the only judge, and that has to be judge enough, or, again, this book cannot be for you." I'm afraid that this is a cop-out. It might be okay when it comes to the drugs the squalor and the general disconnect/disrespect for normality. However, when it comes to the casual treatment of the attempts to sleep with under age "chicks", the casual racism towards Puerto Ricans and the casual manner of dealing with the rape of one of those under-age girls it is no longer enough to say that the book must be judged (morally at least) within its own show more terms.
Otherwise the novel is slapstick, occasionally funny but mostly juvenile. Others have dealt with drugs and squalor in a much more interesting and entertaining way. show less

This book is on the 1001 Books to Read before you Die list and I suppose I can see why it is there. It was written in 1974 but really I would say it dates back to the free love and drug hippy culture of the late 1960s. Horse Badorties, the central character, stands for all the stoned drop outs from mainstream society and he does it marvelously. I can't say I would have wanted to have anything to do with him but he would have been fun to observe from a distance.

Horse lives in New York City and he intends to have a unique musical concert in Tompkins Square with a choir of 15 year old chicks (i.e. young girls), drums, a saxophone player and battery operated fans for everyone. He even talks someone at NBC into filming it. He has other ideas show more for the concert but some things, like a decrepit school bus, don't make it to the final chapter. T. C. Boyle calls Horse Badorties the Don Quixote of modern time albeit without Sancho Panza and that seems appropriate. Horse may not have windmills to tilt at but other things get in his way.

You just have to laugh out loud at some of the scrapes Horse gets himself into. And other things make you shake your head. I'm glad I read this but I'm also glad that it wasn't any longer than 147 pages. show less

My first thought of The Fan Man was what drug induced craziness is this? It also happened to be my last thought when I finished Fan Man. It is chaotic and garbled. To say that I didn't like it is not quite accurate. I get closer to the truth when I admit I didn't understand it. Nancy Pearl described this as a book about the Age of Aquarius and maybe that's the problem - despite being born under the sign of Aquarius, I don't get the Age.

The Fan Man is also Horse Badorties. He is a slob, obsessed with 15 year old "chicks" he can introduce into his "love choir", fans (the Japanese hand-held folding kind) and phones. At one part of the book he spends an entire night in a phone booth making random phone calls. At first I thought the show more obsession with 15 year olds was a metaphor for something else, something spiritual - especially in the context of a love choir. All in all, I think it's safe to say I didn't get this book. show less

The great thing about Kotzwinkle is that he tries a bunch of different stuff, making each novel completely different than the next in style and subject matter. Overall, this is a brilliant piece that makes you want to live your life more...spontaneously? It's hard to put down for more than a few minutes. And god forbid you should read it on dorky day.

The great thing about Kotzwinkle is that he tries a bunch of different stuff, making each novel completely different than the next in style and subject matter. Overall, this is a brilliant piece that makes you want to live your life more...spontaneously? It's hard to put down for more than a few minutes. And god forbid you should read it on dorky day.

I like this book, which I've read more than once, because of the (pot) head of the faux first person narrator, Horse Badorties, and because it accurately conveys the loosey-goosey East Village I recall well, back in the day. I've recommended it a few times, and will recommend it again. It would deserve five stars if not for the regrettable rape scene, which I like to believe the young Kotzwinkle would have redone as an older, wiser head. Not everything is funny, after all.