Tripmaster Monkey: His Fake Book

I love this weird book, which is tedious in parts, unlikable sometimes and ambitious. I love that it devolves into this meta-spectacle, a celebration of DIY stagecraft and political happenings. It seems very much to me a celebration of something we have lost, this ability to create reality in real time, IRL with others, in a Temporary Autonomous Zone-- to make your own fun, without having to plug it in. Greasepaint, cardboard landscapes...

Also, the politics here, the meditation on the hybrid identity of the sons and daughters of immigrants, it is so different in the UK, which kind of stunted as far as these arguments are concerned. It makes me homesick for the vibrant identity politics of the US.

A trippy, funny novel that moves along at a breakneck pace, going nowhere and everywhere all at once. Wittman Ah Sing, the protagonist, is at times infuriating, but he is a trickster and one can't help but love him.

Borderline 3-stars only because I'm in love with that timeframe in the Bay Area. However, I have to say a good deal of the book struck me as confusing and at times just simply bitter. There were moments of poetry, but overall it did not hold up for me.

Another one I remember reading some years ago, without now (2023) recalling its details. But I do remember it was enjoyable.

far too Beat for me

Kingston, Maxine Hung. Tripmaster Monkey.