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The Entelechy Kid: His Life and Times An Epic in Progressively Polysyllabic Prose... Or Maybe Just Another Bad Novel by John Harris conservative humor at its most saline "I've had just about enough, about as much as I can take. Liberators who bomb shopping malls... feminists who loathe kids, men, and all women who don't agree with them... self-ordained evangelists who soil the name of God and appeal to our basest nature... narcissistic professors attending conferences on Marx in Frisco or Tampa, their expenses paid by taxes levied on working stiffs... post-lobotomy dating rites, cue-card news coverage, juiced baseballs, talk shows, dirt bikes, chat rooms... Madre de Dios, I'm so sick of it all! Now I've gotten even. Just about." author's comments |
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So how does this book tie in with our beloved theme of morally responsible fiction? Why, reassuring the public of this work's fictional character is itself highly moral! And its hero... well, Juan de Dios may not be perfect, but look at what he has to put up with. Politicians, televangelists, college professors, Irish ancestors who won't die, feminist stormtroopers who won't clean their boots, beautiful people from California... it's enough to try any saint's patience! Actually, given our current state of cultural meltdown, Juan has a poignant coherence about him. (As one of Peer Gynt's tormentors once said, only lunatics are healthy in an insane world.) He practices a serene self-discipline of the most rigorous and manly sort at all times, except when he blows his top. So why do twenty-first century McCulture, e-life, and the great norteamericano Victim Sweepstakes all keep conspiring to get on his nerves? The jokes start on the back-cover blurbs and proceed through the footnotes! Throughout this "epic" ramble, however, our reluctant Central American revolutionary remains a highly sympathetic character who just wants to settle down with an honest woman and raise a family. Miraculously, his essential innocence survives sniper fire, the snares of secret police, recruitment by Major League Baseball, intense media hype, exposure to academia, sexual overtures from feminists, subjection to Irish nationalism, success in a computer-based business, and failure at having a baby via the Internet. No tawdry moments—but a lot of humor at the expense of political correctness and America’s prevailing "feel good" culture. For a fairly sane excerpt, a synopsis (well, kind of a synopsis) of the novel's contents, and some critical responses (but who are critics to criticize?), click here. |
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