Local author, Victoria N. Alexander has a new novel coming out on June 12th called Locus Amoenus—set in Amenia and the Harlem Valley region
Amenia, NY, May 12, 2015. The hero of Victoria N. Alexander’s novel Locus Amoenus may be the new Holden Caulfield for the post-9/11 generation, according to Kirkus Reviews. In Alexander’s witty but dark political satire, a 9/11 widow and her son, Hamlet, move to beautiful Amenia in upstate New York where they run a sustainable farm—but Hamlet becomes depressed when, on the 8th anniversary of his father’s death, his mother remarries a boring bureaucrat named Claudius. Then Hamlet learns from Horatio, conspiracy theorist, that Claudius is a fraud and something is rotten in the United States of America.
With extraordinary gallows humor, Alexander looks at the tragedy that is contemporary politics, as it plays out in any town America where health, happiness and freedom have been traded for cheap Walmart goods, Paxil, environmental degradation, and endless war.
The publisher, The Permanent Press is one of the finest small presses in the U.S. and has published two other novels by Alexander equally well received. Here is what critics are saying:
Brilliantly combining Shakespeare’s Hamlet with post-911 ruminations, Locus Amœnus does three things Nabokov says a good novel must do: tell a story, inform, and enchant. -Dorion Sagan, author of The Cosmic Apprentice
Alexander notices current absurdities and contradictions in our appetites and critique of consumerism, and despite the tragedy, we have the consolation of her humor. I haven’t laughed this well while reading in a long time. -Josip Novakovich, author of Shopping for a Better Country and Man Booker Prize finalist
A tale of dark political corruption, betrayal and a through-the-looking-glass world, where you can believe six impossible things before breakfast, Locus Amœnus is also a fiercely funny romp by a talented writer -Charles Holdefer, author of The Contractor
Alexander’s Locus Amœnus is a biting, witty, and ultimately touching window on modern American life. She evokes the wit and depth of the best of Kingsolver and high satire and earnest social exploration of Pynchon or Delillo. -David Koepsell, author of Reboot World
Darkly comic, wry and witty, Locus Amœnus is a genuine pastoral, a critique of the bloating and corruption of American life that draws on Hamlet for its dissection of politics, relationships, and love in post-9/11 America. -Oona Frawley, author of Flight, Irish Book Award finalist Victoria N. Alexander, PhD, is the author of three other novels, Smoking Hopes (Washington Prize for Fiction), Naked Singularity (Dallas Observer’s “Best of 2003”), and Trixie, and a work of philosophy, The Biologist’s Mistress: Rethinking Self-Organization in Art, Literature, and Nature. Alexander lives on a sheep farm in Amenia on a with her husband and son. Alexander will appear at apre -release book promotion at the Millbrook Literary Festival on May 30th 10AM-4PM www.millbrookbookfestival.org,book signing at the Amenia Library Book Fair on June 13th from 10AM-12PM http://amenialibrary.org/, reading and discussion at the Northeast-Millerton Library on July 18th nemillertonlibrary.org.
Locus Amoenus will be released in hardcover June 12th. Hardcover copies will be available at Merritt Bookstore in Millbrook and Oblong Books in Millerton June 14th. Contact: Cathy Suter cathy@thepermanentpress.com See http://thepermanentpress.com/index.php/locus-amoenus.html.
