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Potlatch: A Comedy
Have you ever wondered why life seems so complicated, so exhausting, so fattening, and yet so pointless and idiotic?
It's all part of the Potlatch.
To Alice Coggins, the 24-year-old daughter of a South Philadelphia scam artist, everything looks like a racket: endless serflike internships, student loans that can never be repaid, high-minded charities run by swindlers for the benefit of rich donors. Things only get worse when she meets Andrew Ogleby, a scion of blue-bloods who is engaged to a bulimic pet-food heiress he can't bring himself to marry.
As their Cinderella romance unfolds, Alice and Andrew must battle their families, the mob, and most of all the ubiquitous "Potlatch": a vast conspiracy of conspicuous waste directed by the powers that be to keep the populace -- and especially the young people -- from even thinking about doing anything useful.
"Get ready for a hilarious ride in Potlatch... One of the most amusing reads ever to be published.” -- Lisa McCombs for Readers’ Favorite Book Reviews.
It's all part of the Potlatch.
To Alice Coggins, the 24-year-old daughter of a South Philadelphia scam artist, everything looks like a racket: endless serflike internships, student loans that can never be repaid, high-minded charities run by swindlers for the benefit of rich donors. Things only get worse when she meets Andrew Ogleby, a scion of blue-bloods who is engaged to a bulimic pet-food heiress he can't bring himself to marry.
As their Cinderella romance unfolds, Alice and Andrew must battle their families, the mob, and most of all the ubiquitous "Potlatch": a vast conspiracy of conspicuous waste directed by the powers that be to keep the populace -- and especially the young people -- from even thinking about doing anything useful.
"Get ready for a hilarious ride in Potlatch... One of the most amusing reads ever to be published.” -- Lisa McCombs for Readers’ Favorite Book Reviews.
286 pages, Paperback
Published December 5, 2017
About the author
Bruce Hartman
19 books45 followersBruce Hartman lives with his wife in Pennsylvania. He has worked as a pianist, bookseller and attorney and has been writing fiction for many years. He is the author of fourteen novels, all available on Amazon.
His latest book, THE WHITE NAGUAL, is set in the haunting Chiricahua Mountains of southeastern Arizona in 1870. John Pierce, an army scout, is sent into the wilderness to track down a killer he knows to be his former commanding officer and friend, Andrew Brodie, who is said to be roaming the mountains in the form of an Apache demon called a nagual. It is an elemental tale of good and evil and their shifting shapes in the struggle for the human heart.
His previous book, THE DIVIDE, is a sequel to LEGEND OF LOST BASIN, which was Finalist for the 2025 Spur Award from Western Writers of America for "Best Traditional Western Novel." The two novels are the first books in the projected Lost West Trilogy. One reviewer called THE DIVIDE "a compelling sojourn into death, love, and challenge [which] represents not just a compelling Western adventure set in the late 1800s, but a review of thought-provoking perceptions and issues of the times."
Kirkus Reviews called LEGEND OF LOST BASIN "a riveting addition to the Western genre." Another reviewer called it "a literary novel of the West which stands apart." It is in fact a saga of domination, betrayal, discovery, growth and love set against the brooding high desert landscape of the West.
Among his other books, most of which are mysteries, the most popular are those in the Philosophical Detective Trilogy, beginning with THE PHILOSOPHICAL DETECTIVE (2014), continuing with THE PHILOSOPHICAL DETECTIVE RETURNS (2020), and concluding with THE PHILOSOPHICAL DETECTIVE'S LAST CASE (2023). All three novels concern the extraordinary investigations of a blind poet and fabulist who calls himself Jorge Luis Borges, and who, together with his assistant Nick Martin, wrestles with a baffling series of crimes and the equally baffling conundrums of literature and philosophy, including Zeno's paradoxes and the mysteries of destiny, personal identity and artistic creation. Kirkus Reviews called THE PHILOSOPHICAL DETECTIVE "a suspenseful, pitch-perfect novel.. an intelligent, original detective novel." The sequels stand by themselves but the three books taken together form an integrated whole.
Bruce Hartman's previous book, PAROLE, is a crime thriller in the tradition of Elmore Leonard about an unlikely pair of parolees from San Quentin struggling against the odds to recover their lives and fortunes in L.A. If it were a movie, it would probably be classified as an action/comedy/thriller. It has recently become available as an audiobook on Audible.
His first novel, PERFECTLY HEALTHY MAN DROPS DEAD, won the Salvo Press Mystery Novel Award and was published by Salvo Press in 2008. In 2018 it was reissued by Swallow Tail Press in a revised Tenth Anniversary Edition (both paperback and ebook).
Bruce Hartman's second book, THE RULES OF DREAMING, published by Swallow Tail Press in 2013, was awarded Kirkus Star for Books of Exceptional Merit. Kirkus Reviews called it "a mind-bending marriage of ambitious literary theory and classic murder mystery" and selected it as one of its "Top 100 Indie Books of 2013." Another mystery, THE MUSE OF VIOLENCE, was also published in 2013.
Bruce Hartman's seventh novel, POTLATCH: A Comedy, is a satirical comedy set in Philadelphia. Readers' Favorite Book Reviews called it "one of the most amusing reads ever to be published."
POTLATCH is the second entry in a projected trilogy which began with A BUTTERFLY IN PHILADELPHIA. Readers' Favorite Book Reviews called BUTTERFLY "one of the strange comic masterpieces that you're quite lucky to run across once in a very great while."
POTLATCH followed another comic novel, BIG DATA IS WATCHING YOU! (recently republished in a slightly revised form as BIG Ai IS WATCHING YOU!), a satirical techno-dystopia set i
His latest book, THE WHITE NAGUAL, is set in the haunting Chiricahua Mountains of southeastern Arizona in 1870. John Pierce, an army scout, is sent into the wilderness to track down a killer he knows to be his former commanding officer and friend, Andrew Brodie, who is said to be roaming the mountains in the form of an Apache demon called a nagual. It is an elemental tale of good and evil and their shifting shapes in the struggle for the human heart.
His previous book, THE DIVIDE, is a sequel to LEGEND OF LOST BASIN, which was Finalist for the 2025 Spur Award from Western Writers of America for "Best Traditional Western Novel." The two novels are the first books in the projected Lost West Trilogy. One reviewer called THE DIVIDE "a compelling sojourn into death, love, and challenge [which] represents not just a compelling Western adventure set in the late 1800s, but a review of thought-provoking perceptions and issues of the times."
Kirkus Reviews called LEGEND OF LOST BASIN "a riveting addition to the Western genre." Another reviewer called it "a literary novel of the West which stands apart." It is in fact a saga of domination, betrayal, discovery, growth and love set against the brooding high desert landscape of the West.
Among his other books, most of which are mysteries, the most popular are those in the Philosophical Detective Trilogy, beginning with THE PHILOSOPHICAL DETECTIVE (2014), continuing with THE PHILOSOPHICAL DETECTIVE RETURNS (2020), and concluding with THE PHILOSOPHICAL DETECTIVE'S LAST CASE (2023). All three novels concern the extraordinary investigations of a blind poet and fabulist who calls himself Jorge Luis Borges, and who, together with his assistant Nick Martin, wrestles with a baffling series of crimes and the equally baffling conundrums of literature and philosophy, including Zeno's paradoxes and the mysteries of destiny, personal identity and artistic creation. Kirkus Reviews called THE PHILOSOPHICAL DETECTIVE "a suspenseful, pitch-perfect novel.. an intelligent, original detective novel." The sequels stand by themselves but the three books taken together form an integrated whole.
Bruce Hartman's previous book, PAROLE, is a crime thriller in the tradition of Elmore Leonard about an unlikely pair of parolees from San Quentin struggling against the odds to recover their lives and fortunes in L.A. If it were a movie, it would probably be classified as an action/comedy/thriller. It has recently become available as an audiobook on Audible.
His first novel, PERFECTLY HEALTHY MAN DROPS DEAD, won the Salvo Press Mystery Novel Award and was published by Salvo Press in 2008. In 2018 it was reissued by Swallow Tail Press in a revised Tenth Anniversary Edition (both paperback and ebook).
Bruce Hartman's second book, THE RULES OF DREAMING, published by Swallow Tail Press in 2013, was awarded Kirkus Star for Books of Exceptional Merit. Kirkus Reviews called it "a mind-bending marriage of ambitious literary theory and classic murder mystery" and selected it as one of its "Top 100 Indie Books of 2013." Another mystery, THE MUSE OF VIOLENCE, was also published in 2013.
Bruce Hartman's seventh novel, POTLATCH: A Comedy, is a satirical comedy set in Philadelphia. Readers' Favorite Book Reviews called it "one of the most amusing reads ever to be published."
POTLATCH is the second entry in a projected trilogy which began with A BUTTERFLY IN PHILADELPHIA. Readers' Favorite Book Reviews called BUTTERFLY "one of the strange comic masterpieces that you're quite lucky to run across once in a very great while."
POTLATCH followed another comic novel, BIG DATA IS WATCHING YOU! (recently republished in a slightly revised form as BIG Ai IS WATCHING YOU!), a satirical techno-dystopia set i
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
July 1, 2020
The first thing that caught my eye was the first word in the title "Potlatch" as I knew the meaning of the word (a ceremony in which there is a lavish feast and the giving of gifts that is given by the indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest, including Canada and the U.S.)
The author has written a humorous satire here, and the reader needs to realize that this is satire before sitting down with the book and remember that.
Having said that, the situations described in this book will touch upon many of today's troubles: health care, politics, the environment, the power of the rich, etc. etc. etc.
As long as you go into this with the knowledge that it is satire, it's meant to poke fun at certain things while still bringing the issues to light, and you remember to laugh, you will enjoy this book.
The author has written a humorous satire here, and the reader needs to realize that this is satire before sitting down with the book and remember that.
Having said that, the situations described in this book will touch upon many of today's troubles: health care, politics, the environment, the power of the rich, etc. etc. etc.
As long as you go into this with the knowledge that it is satire, it's meant to poke fun at certain things while still bringing the issues to light, and you remember to laugh, you will enjoy this book.
April 17, 2018
Potlatch is a novel which has more than one protagonist, but if I had to pick anyone as the main focus, it would be 24-year-old Alice Coggins; she is the daughter of a con artist... read the full review here: https://www.amybucklesbookshelf.co.uk...
December 8, 2017
Ah, South Philly: summer thighs stuck to plastic slip covers, pizza and Pat’s steaks instead of McD’s, Sinatra radio Friday nights in beauty parlors specializing in the Camar Jenny hair cut (shave up the back of the neck). South Philly, my birthplace and home for over two decades. And also the home of the Coggins family, Neanderthal-Americans per the latest DNA test, and founders of the newest political party. Dad on house arrest for life, Mom hating Dad, Tiffany hating sister Alice and Alice waitressing through a Wonderland of award dinners while falling in love.
Like Beckett’s arbitrary chaos of life, Bruce Hartman once again illustrates this as only he knows how to do: comedy, philosophical comedy, comic characters, and then, well, more comedy. If you ever wondered about the Neanderthal-American party, student loan debt and internships as a panacea for unemployment, non-profit profiteers, conspicuous consumption and/or the warehousing of the walking dead (who are, of course, on the voting rolls) then this is the explanation you have been waiting for.
Having read all of Hartman’s books, I revel in his ability to write Philosophical comedies without repeating himself. This is actually the second in a series (with different characters) yet quite original.
What of the book title? I initially learned the word “Potlatch” after reading a biography about the artist Emily Carr who painted totem poles in Canada and attended Native American potlatches, the giving away of possessions to enhance prestige. This will give you a story clue without spoilers
Hartman’s writing is so visual that I can imagine scenes in a movie (are the Colonial or Broadway theaters still in South Philly?); but somewhere along the way, the snorting and laughing from this exaggerated comedy ends and the reader suddenly realizes, in a disturbing way, that the antics are in the realm of real life. An entire philosophical cloud of doubt engulfs the now-serious reader concerning the true meaning of Hartman’s words. But in life, I have learned, a sense of humor can get us through some of the worst that life may have to offer. I would rather laugh than cry…
Like Beckett’s arbitrary chaos of life, Bruce Hartman once again illustrates this as only he knows how to do: comedy, philosophical comedy, comic characters, and then, well, more comedy. If you ever wondered about the Neanderthal-American party, student loan debt and internships as a panacea for unemployment, non-profit profiteers, conspicuous consumption and/or the warehousing of the walking dead (who are, of course, on the voting rolls) then this is the explanation you have been waiting for.
Having read all of Hartman’s books, I revel in his ability to write Philosophical comedies without repeating himself. This is actually the second in a series (with different characters) yet quite original.
What of the book title? I initially learned the word “Potlatch” after reading a biography about the artist Emily Carr who painted totem poles in Canada and attended Native American potlatches, the giving away of possessions to enhance prestige. This will give you a story clue without spoilers
Hartman’s writing is so visual that I can imagine scenes in a movie (are the Colonial or Broadway theaters still in South Philly?); but somewhere along the way, the snorting and laughing from this exaggerated comedy ends and the reader suddenly realizes, in a disturbing way, that the antics are in the realm of real life. An entire philosophical cloud of doubt engulfs the now-serious reader concerning the true meaning of Hartman’s words. But in life, I have learned, a sense of humor can get us through some of the worst that life may have to offer. I would rather laugh than cry…
November 7, 2019
This novel is told from several shifting points of view - action is told in first person from the protagonist, Alice, and third from that of several others in the large cast that peoples the story. Add in the "lecturer" voice which provides all the exposition on background material and this makes for an uneven narrative experience. Granted, it seems necessary: The writer has a lot to say about the nature of the world and what makes it go round, most of it wise and important. (He does, however, seem to have a basic misunderstanding of what the term "potlatch" meant to Native Americans, which kind of skews the point.) It is reasonably good satire on wealth and its distribution, which excuses a few cookie-cutter characters and fantastical events, coming out satisfying over all.
June 1, 2019
It has its moments--I definitely laughed out loud at some things, but this book just tries to pack in too much satire/social commentary for any of it to be really effective. I wasn't fond of the constant derision toward education and the "punching down" (e.g. mocking homeless people).
It also bothered me that Hartman appropriated a Native American term for his title and used it frequently throughout the book without acknowledging its origin.
It also bothered me that Hartman appropriated a Native American term for his title and used it frequently throughout the book without acknowledging its origin.
May 29, 2018
This is a finely tuned black comedy with tight plotting and sharp humor. The characters are delightfully and maniacally quirky and flawed and the pace is swift. I have read all of Hartman's books. He is a great satirist and writer. I would read a book by him even if it was about a flippant turnip. Highly recommend!!
September 28, 2018
Potlatch
This is a crazy, wild story of a group of characters all trying to live with and exist in the potlatch. Alice is the daughter of a scheming father on house arrest. She works unpaid internships like most of the people her age. She discovers the potlatch and is trying to figure it out. A funny, wild ride
This is a crazy, wild story of a group of characters all trying to live with and exist in the potlatch. Alice is the daughter of a scheming father on house arrest. She works unpaid internships like most of the people her age. She discovers the potlatch and is trying to figure it out. A funny, wild ride
January 2, 2019
As with my review of "Butterfly in Philadelphia", this followup by Mr. Hartman was also enjoyable for its colorful characters and comedic touch. This one also had a bit more cutting social commentary than the first, which I enjoyed. That said, I just wasn't as enamored with this one as the first book.
February 9, 2019
I feel like I NEED the next book now. As in book 1, there were so many threads it was at times difficult to keep up. In the end, I was amazed to see the finely woven and intricate tapestry left behind me. Almost dystopian instead of satirical, with a bit of modern day fairy tale and a lot of conspiracy theory.
March 7, 2018
Well written view of the inner workings of social systems and political clockwork of being unemployed officially and governmental support systems enhancing the "deserving". "Tongue in cheek" has adhered itself to the side of the oral cavity and is self-grafting.
November 17, 2018
Next....
Can wait for book 3, so far such a fun, quirky series.
Great characters abound, unlikely scenarios are hysterical..
Recommended for some alternative reading.
Can wait for book 3, so far such a fun, quirky series.
Great characters abound, unlikely scenarios are hysterical..
Recommended for some alternative reading.
June 3, 2019
Social commentary via hectic comedy in South Philly; this book was a hoot.
Want to Read
March 16, 2018I received this book for free from the author/publisher in response for an honest review of the book. I have not had the opportunity to read this book at this time. I will add my
review of this book once I have read the book. Thank k you for allowing me the optometrist review your work. I look forward to reading this book.
review of this book once I have read the book. Thank k you for allowing me the optometrist review your work. I look forward to reading this book.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews