Locus Amoenus
V. N. Alexander
In this dark comedy, a 9/11 widow and her son, Hamlet, have retreated from Brooklyn to the idyllic rural countryside upstate, where for nearly eight years they have tried organic farming. Unfortunately, their outrageously obese neighbors, who prefer the starchy products of industrial agriculture, shun their elitist ways (recycling, eating healthy, reading). Hamlet, who is now eighteen, is beginning to suspect that something is rotten in the United States of America, when health, happiness and freedom are traded for cheap Walmart goods, Paxil, endless war, standard curriculum, and environmental degradation. He becomes depressed when, on the very day of the 8th anniversary of his father’s death, his mother marries a horrid, boring bureaucrat named Claudius. Things get even more depressing for Hamlet when his friend Horatio, a conspiracy theorist, reveals that Claudius is a fraud. The deceptions, spying, corruption, will ultimately lead, as in Shakespeare’s play, to tragedy.
Locus Amoenus uses hilarity and conspiracy theories to present the tragicomedy of a contemporary America that is beyond belief. An important contribution to contemporary American fiction. -William Irwin Thompson, Wild River Review
This is Hamlet reimagined as a truther. The protagonist isn’t just feigning madness–he’s genuinely losing his mind. -Kirkus
A witty novella that unflinchingly examines the dark roots of industrial agriculture, pharmaceutical conglomerates, and standardized curriculum. A brilliant modern parallel to Shakespeare’s timeless work. –Literary Fiction Book Review
Until now, the only 9/11 themed novel of high literary quality was Thomas Pynchon’s Bleeding Edge. Locus Amoenus is the best fictional treatment of 9/11 yet. It’s hilarious, darkly ironic, playful, deeply moving. –Kevin Barrett
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