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The Fan Man
The Fan Man is a comic novel published in 1974 by the American writer William Kotzwinkle. It is told in the first-person by the narrator, Horse Badorties, a down-at-the-heels hippie living a life of drug-fueled befuddlement in New York City c. 1970. The book is written in a colorful, vernacular "hippie-speak" and tells the story of the main character's hapless attempts to put together a benefit concert featuring his own hand-picked choir of 15-year-old girls.
Horse is a somewhat tragic, though historically humorous, character with echoes of other famous characters in popular culture such as Reverend Jim Ignatowski of Taxi fame. In his inability to follow anything through to completion he displays symptoms of attention-deficit disorder though this could equally be drug-induced. His defining characteristic is his joy in renting or commandeering apartments which he fills with street-scavenged junk articles until full to bursting he moves on to his next "pad". The name "fan man" is a reference to another of his traits; the collecting of fans of all shapes and sizes.
Horse is a somewhat tragic, though historically humorous, character with echoes of other famous characters in popular culture such as Reverend Jim Ignatowski of Taxi fame. In his inability to follow anything through to completion he displays symptoms of attention-deficit disorder though this could equally be drug-induced. His defining characteristic is his joy in renting or commandeering apartments which he fills with street-scavenged junk articles until full to bursting he moves on to his next "pad". The name "fan man" is a reference to another of his traits; the collecting of fans of all shapes and sizes.
191 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1974
46 people are currently reading
2209 people want to read
About the author
William Kotzwinkle
81 books256 followersWilliam Kotzwinkle is a two-time recipient of the National Magazine Award for Fiction, a winner of the World Fantasy Award, the Prix Litteraire des Bouquinistes des Quais de Paris, the PETA Award for Children's Books, and a Book Critics Circle award nominee. His work has been translated into dozens of languages.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 192 reviews
February 7, 2022
Every epoch needs its literary memorial… And The Fan Man is an ideal memorial to the fabulously far out epoch of psychedelia.
The Fan Man isn’t just a book – it is a highly hallucinatory psychedelic trip.
Just tune yourself to the vibes of the world: “The ear hears, the heart knows, the voice sings out.”
You should be in harmony with the universe and never mind how weird you may appear to the others…
I just woke up, man. Horse Badorties just woke up and is crawling around in the sea of abominated filthiness, man, which he calls home. Walking through the rooms of my pad, man, through broken glass and piles of filthy clothes from which I shall select my wardrobe for the day.
The Fan Man isn’t just a book – it is a highly hallucinatory psychedelic trip.
Open satchel take out special Montgomery Ward mail-order glass-enclosed water-filled wire-screened rubber-hosed lung-preserving mother-fucking hookah. And out of my moisture-proof herbalist’s pouch I am removing a generous pinch of Mexican papaya leaf, man, to get my enzymes flowing, sprinkling the leaves into the bowl of the hookah.
Just tune yourself to the vibes of the world: “The ear hears, the heart knows, the voice sings out.”
You should be in harmony with the universe and never mind how weird you may appear to the others…
April 4, 2025
Horse Badorties, the “Fan Man” is the godfather of Vernon Subutex. Both are artists of life, occasionally homeless, they drink, smoke pot, have a special connection to music and are spiritually enlightened. But while the changing perspectives in “Vernon Subutex” create a kaleidoscope of French society at the turn of the millennium, the perspective in “Fan Man” is much narrower: in a radical stream of consciousness, it is all about the protagonist, who moves through New York in the 70s.
He gets into abstruse situations from which he rescues himself in a slapstick manner by positively re-evaluating the adversities of life. Loss becomes gain, scrap becomes useful, disappointment becomes a reason to move on. He is never at a loss for an excuse and is enviable in his ability to extract the essence of life.
What makes the book problematic, however, is on the one hand the increasingly redundant humor, and on the other hand the situations at whose expense jokes are made. The rape of an underage girl is not funny. Neither is Horse Badortie's lust for fifteen-year-old girls.
Even if Horse Badorties - like a trickster - often appears one-dimensional, he gains depth in the end. Memories briefly flare up: of his violin lessons, an unpleasant uncle, the favorite place of his childhood to which he returns. And he strides on through the rain towards his next reincarnation, fan and all in his bag, the prototype of the now historic hippie.
He gets into abstruse situations from which he rescues himself in a slapstick manner by positively re-evaluating the adversities of life. Loss becomes gain, scrap becomes useful, disappointment becomes a reason to move on. He is never at a loss for an excuse and is enviable in his ability to extract the essence of life.
What makes the book problematic, however, is on the one hand the increasingly redundant humor, and on the other hand the situations at whose expense jokes are made. The rape of an underage girl is not funny. Neither is Horse Badortie's lust for fifteen-year-old girls.
Even if Horse Badorties - like a trickster - often appears one-dimensional, he gains depth in the end. Memories briefly flare up: of his violin lessons, an unpleasant uncle, the favorite place of his childhood to which he returns. And he strides on through the rain towards his next reincarnation, fan and all in his bag, the prototype of the now historic hippie.
September 12, 2017
Feel the filth and dust, man, blowing into my eyes and the stench of piss and shit and vomit and old beer cans, man, up my nose. We're back, man, where we belong.
If Ignatius P. Reilly had been motherless and born in a New York city park rather than humid Louisiana, taken to smoking herb and letting himself really go, man, he might have been spawned the twin of Horse Badorties, the protagonist and main Fan Man. Kotzwinkle's prose is sparse, hilarious - even genius at points - and the only regret I have reading this book is that I didn't pick up the volume with the pictures. I can only imagine how funny they are and how they add to the story.
The 20th anniversary edition that I read (published in 1994) came with a foreward by Kurt Vonnegut. It's a short intro, but it is brilliant, and Vonnegut says things better than anyone else, so in his words - this is why you, too, should read this book:
This is music to be played in the head, and only the quickest, least inhibited sight-readers can play it as written, and thus hear head music the likes of which, prior to its publication in 1974, had never been heard.
It was and remains important, but since it requires readers to be skilled performers, it can never be for everyone.
And it is especially not for those who require writers, no matter how seemingly hilarious or how bizarre their subject matter, to indicate that they are in fact solid citizens, treasurers of sanity devoted to the well-being of their communities. In this book neither the author nor any characters in his cast offers the wispiest hint as to how healthy and reasonable people feel about its hero, Horse Badorties. The moral stabilizer in this story, take it or leave it, is like the busted junk Badorties keeps buying for chaotically imagined future uses. It is what Badorties thinks of himself while fogbound by drugs and absolutely terminal incompetence and loneliness.
One must understand that in this book Badorties is the only judge, and that has to be judge enough, or, again, this book cannot be for you. It is like an egg. Everything which is supposed to be inside the shell is in there. Good luck to the egg, and good luck to you.
Many thanks to Rod for pointing me to this gem.
"Fading out, man, it's starting to fade, but it will come back when the time is right."
- Horse Badorties
If Ignatius P. Reilly had been motherless and born in a New York city park rather than humid Louisiana, taken to smoking herb and letting himself really go, man, he might have been spawned the twin of Horse Badorties, the protagonist and main Fan Man. Kotzwinkle's prose is sparse, hilarious - even genius at points - and the only regret I have reading this book is that I didn't pick up the volume with the pictures. I can only imagine how funny they are and how they add to the story.
The 20th anniversary edition that I read (published in 1994) came with a foreward by Kurt Vonnegut. It's a short intro, but it is brilliant, and Vonnegut says things better than anyone else, so in his words - this is why you, too, should read this book:
This is music to be played in the head, and only the quickest, least inhibited sight-readers can play it as written, and thus hear head music the likes of which, prior to its publication in 1974, had never been heard.
It was and remains important, but since it requires readers to be skilled performers, it can never be for everyone.
And it is especially not for those who require writers, no matter how seemingly hilarious or how bizarre their subject matter, to indicate that they are in fact solid citizens, treasurers of sanity devoted to the well-being of their communities. In this book neither the author nor any characters in his cast offers the wispiest hint as to how healthy and reasonable people feel about its hero, Horse Badorties. The moral stabilizer in this story, take it or leave it, is like the busted junk Badorties keeps buying for chaotically imagined future uses. It is what Badorties thinks of himself while fogbound by drugs and absolutely terminal incompetence and loneliness.
One must understand that in this book Badorties is the only judge, and that has to be judge enough, or, again, this book cannot be for you. It is like an egg. Everything which is supposed to be inside the shell is in there. Good luck to the egg, and good luck to you.
Many thanks to Rod for pointing me to this gem.
"Fading out, man, it's starting to fade, but it will come back when the time is right."
- Horse Badorties
April 12, 2007
dorky dorky dorky dorky dorky dorky dorky dorky dorky dorky dorky dorky dorky dorky dorky dorky dorky dorky dorky dorky dorky dorky dorky dorky dorky dorky dorky dorky dorky dorky dorky dorky dorky...
February 5, 2017
This is a vicious satire of narcissism of the hippie philosophy of peace-and-love. Horse Baderite lives as a serial squatter in New York’s Lower East Side, hoarding cast-off junk, and bumbling through life on the bounties that comes his way from entertaining others with his groovy banter. His obsessive quests propel him toward the door each morning, but there is so much junk in his way and so many mental diversions that intervene that he often gets so tired he has to take a nap before he can get down to business. The daily goals typically include finding dope and teen-aged nookie, but sometimes these targets call for an ambitious scheme to make them more likely to happen. His dream is to engage homeless teen girls to learn music from him and put on a free choral concert, in the process impressing them with his genius and paving the way to his bed. This makes for an interesting allegory for civilization as a thin veneer over our hunter-gatherer roots. Unfortunately, the unwinding of the tale gets tiresome, and I longed to be free of the claustrophobia of being trapped in his twisted mind.
The title refers to those little battery-powered fans that seem to be the epitome of a tech solution to the misery that ails us all. His conception is to collect enough of them to use them as an instrumental chorus in the planned concert. As he goes about his quest, more and more props get added to his collection to the point that he can barely travel around. To get people and props to the planned concert, he gets it in his head to acquire a used bus from a junkyard, paying with a hot check. Before he gets out of the junkyard, he can’t resist filling it up with other useless stuff. He doesn’t even make it a block before the vehicle’s brakes fail and he blithely abandons the wreck that ensues. All in this book are like sandcastles that mankind creates before the next tide erases them.
This tale fits with a long tradition of literature where an aimless, anarchistic approach to life ends up calling for a creative career that gathers ever more epicycles of effort. From Don Quixote and Candide to the anti-heroes of Joyce Cary’s “Horse’s Mouth”, John Kennedy Toole’s “Confederacy of Dunces”, and Jim Harrison’s “Brown Dog”, the path to accomplish something in life is paved with misplaced or aimless intentions, and the line between blind selfishness and meaningful purpose in an absurd world gets blurred in many ways.
The title refers to those little battery-powered fans that seem to be the epitome of a tech solution to the misery that ails us all. His conception is to collect enough of them to use them as an instrumental chorus in the planned concert. As he goes about his quest, more and more props get added to his collection to the point that he can barely travel around. To get people and props to the planned concert, he gets it in his head to acquire a used bus from a junkyard, paying with a hot check. Before he gets out of the junkyard, he can’t resist filling it up with other useless stuff. He doesn’t even make it a block before the vehicle’s brakes fail and he blithely abandons the wreck that ensues. All in this book are like sandcastles that mankind creates before the next tide erases them.
This tale fits with a long tradition of literature where an aimless, anarchistic approach to life ends up calling for a creative career that gathers ever more epicycles of effort. From Don Quixote and Candide to the anti-heroes of Joyce Cary’s “Horse’s Mouth”, John Kennedy Toole’s “Confederacy of Dunces”, and Jim Harrison’s “Brown Dog”, the path to accomplish something in life is paved with misplaced or aimless intentions, and the line between blind selfishness and meaningful purpose in an absurd world gets blurred in many ways.
September 20, 2012
I haven't laughed this gleefully at a book since I read Gravity's Rainbow (I have a weakness for zaniness, admittedly). Horse Badorties is one of the most singularly unique and memorable characters in literature, reminiscent of later free-spirited slackers like The Dude and Kramer, but with his own particular brand of lunacy. If he were a real person, the TV show Hoarders could devote an entire season to him, if not give him his own spin-off. His overriding obsession is finding 15-year-old girls to comprise his "Love Chorus," and bringing medieval church music (set to the pitch of Japanese handheld, battery-powered electric fans, no less) to the masses via a nationally televised concert, but his ADD tendencies and perpetually stoned headspace get in the way (although surprisingly not that much). So, in other words, it's a pretty weird book, but funny, very funny. And I'll never look at the word "dorky" the same way again.
September 20, 2007
This book was a real surprise. I was ready put it down after reading the first pages thinking that it was one of the stupidest things I had ever read. But as I continued on - starting to enjoy Horse Badorties inner monolog with every sentence ending with 'man', I soon realized that this was a masterpiece.
Definetly one of the best books I have ever read!
Definetly one of the best books I have ever read!
August 15, 2007
This book is gross. Sexist. Fucked up.
I also loved it. It's absurd, sublimely stupid, strangely buoyant.
I also loved it. It's absurd, sublimely stupid, strangely buoyant.
May 27, 2008
This is an account the Crumbling Autumn that followed the Summer of Love. Told from the perspective of a smarmy , East Village loser Horse Badarties , largely in a stream of consciousness format, Kotzwinkle succeeds in sending the hippies off into the sunset. Is it funny? Hell, yeah. It makes one wonder, though, where have all the potheads gone?
August 25, 2008
This was the edition we had around the house, the one I fell in love with because it had filthy illustrations to accompany the prose. The most recent edition excises the sketches, replacing all with a cover that says nothing about the book, featuring a person with some existential conflict happening. If you've read the book - and what a fucking book! - you'll see Horse Badorties isn't prone to that sort of thing.
January 19, 2011
I've had a series of writing blocks/cramps with my writing project recently, and I realized at least part of my constipation concerning the project was due to the fact I wasn't reading books that would inspire me. Sure, I've been reading some decent books, but none of them have been of the same genre or style to which I aspire to. They've been way out of the ball park, man, so I decided maybe I should take a closer look at some stuff that might benefit in inspiring or guilting my own plucky prose.
The Fan Man by William Kotzwinkle is a book I've been wanting to read for a while. Dig this author, man, with his monocle and funky beard. Crazy, right? And this is the cat that wrote the novelization of E.T., so you know he's onto some wacky stuff. This book was just enough like my own project to inspire me while being different enough to not depress me into abandoning my project. It tells the story of a weirdo loner with distinct attention disorder named Horse Badorties and his quest to make a Love Chorus with fifteen year-old chicks while outrunning Puerto Rican music and finding something to eat. It's a gas from the first page to the last one, a hilarious, wacky book, in the style of Richard Brautigan or some early 70's great like that, and a breeze to get through. Never a dull moment thanks to Badorties' tendency to roam around aimlessly and in the most unpredictable ways. It's of the right length too, with enough of a plot and tension to keep the reader interested. Horse Badortie's rambling monologue to the reader is endlessly entertaining, even when it's a bit depressing. He doesn't really belong to a realistic reality, but I'm sure it's a pitch-perfect resemblance to the hippie-dippy world of 1973 New York City. I think this is as close to an underground-60's-comix-in-prose-form as one can get.
Anyway, this list is for me, noting similarities and dissimilarities between my project and the Fan Man:
-Hoarder homeless personality with no attention span, mysterious source or “income” or ability to keep afloat without being on the street. Horse more manic, totally gone, flake. Funnier. Caricature of hippie of that time period. First person monologue.
-Both have magic words. Horse spends one day a month saying dorky over and over again.
-Interaction with “fellow travelers” totally different. Horse interacts with others that say “man,” but they are not fleshed out, they are mere shadows of him, all of one archetypal “Hippie Flake.”
-Fan Man funnier, but (perhaps) lacks deeper substance. Mine is more plot-heavy, maybe to its detriment. Both have short chapters, though Fan Man's are more enticing because of titles for the chapters. You get to know Horse more than you really get to know Marton, although you get to know Marton's world fairly well.
-Even though it is a depressing world, there is no darkness in Horse's world. Everything is for comical effect, even the racism.
-There are some instances where Fan Man steps out of Horse's perspective. Surprisingly, they work well. Might try something like this.
-Fan Man: no resolution: circular life, no attention, no getting anywhere. False epiphanies.
-Symbolical luggage. Gross, unrecognizable food. Funny hats. Everything has a name, possessive noun. Stringed-out community of the outsiders, easily-marked Straight Man populace.
The Fan Man by William Kotzwinkle is a book I've been wanting to read for a while. Dig this author, man, with his monocle and funky beard. Crazy, right? And this is the cat that wrote the novelization of E.T., so you know he's onto some wacky stuff. This book was just enough like my own project to inspire me while being different enough to not depress me into abandoning my project. It tells the story of a weirdo loner with distinct attention disorder named Horse Badorties and his quest to make a Love Chorus with fifteen year-old chicks while outrunning Puerto Rican music and finding something to eat. It's a gas from the first page to the last one, a hilarious, wacky book, in the style of Richard Brautigan or some early 70's great like that, and a breeze to get through. Never a dull moment thanks to Badorties' tendency to roam around aimlessly and in the most unpredictable ways. It's of the right length too, with enough of a plot and tension to keep the reader interested. Horse Badortie's rambling monologue to the reader is endlessly entertaining, even when it's a bit depressing. He doesn't really belong to a realistic reality, but I'm sure it's a pitch-perfect resemblance to the hippie-dippy world of 1973 New York City. I think this is as close to an underground-60's-comix-in-prose-form as one can get.
Anyway, this list is for me, noting similarities and dissimilarities between my project and the Fan Man:
-Hoarder homeless personality with no attention span, mysterious source or “income” or ability to keep afloat without being on the street. Horse more manic, totally gone, flake. Funnier. Caricature of hippie of that time period. First person monologue.
-Both have magic words. Horse spends one day a month saying dorky over and over again.
-Interaction with “fellow travelers” totally different. Horse interacts with others that say “man,” but they are not fleshed out, they are mere shadows of him, all of one archetypal “Hippie Flake.”
-Fan Man funnier, but (perhaps) lacks deeper substance. Mine is more plot-heavy, maybe to its detriment. Both have short chapters, though Fan Man's are more enticing because of titles for the chapters. You get to know Horse more than you really get to know Marton, although you get to know Marton's world fairly well.
-Even though it is a depressing world, there is no darkness in Horse's world. Everything is for comical effect, even the racism.
-There are some instances where Fan Man steps out of Horse's perspective. Surprisingly, they work well. Might try something like this.
-Fan Man: no resolution: circular life, no attention, no getting anywhere. False epiphanies.
-Symbolical luggage. Gross, unrecognizable food. Funny hats. Everything has a name, possessive noun. Stringed-out community of the outsiders, easily-marked Straight Man populace.
April 1, 2016
I am just so sick of reading books that include rape. So many, just in the last couple of weeks, and on top of current events, it's too fucking much. I'm tired of being barraged by it, of having it be a sidenote thrown into a book that is otherwise hilarious. Of having it treated lightly, off-handedly, mostly in connection to how it affects the male main characters. There are very few books that I've read recently where I think it's been handled well.
Note: The rest of this review has been withheld due to the changes in Goodreads policy and enforcement. You can read why I came to this decision here.
In the meantime, you can read the entire review at Smorgasbook
Note: The rest of this review has been withheld due to the changes in Goodreads policy and enforcement. You can read why I came to this decision here.
In the meantime, you can read the entire review at Smorgasbook
February 13, 2008
From the author of E.T. this is the most wonderful, weird book I have ever read. I never tire of it. If you have one of the 15 copies I have lent to people over the years please send it back.
It is described as the quintessential novel about the dusking of the age of Aquarius. Horse Bedorties is scouring the city looking for teenage girls to sing in his love chorus which he rehearses in the church in his neighborhood. There is some serious brilliant insanity going on here. It leaves you wondering how Kotzwinle came up with a character like this. Brilliant.
It is described as the quintessential novel about the dusking of the age of Aquarius. Horse Bedorties is scouring the city looking for teenage girls to sing in his love chorus which he rehearses in the church in his neighborhood. There is some serious brilliant insanity going on here. It leaves you wondering how Kotzwinle came up with a character like this. Brilliant.
January 10, 2013
Imagine a Kurt Vonnegut novel, but with no purpose and no plot. Gross just for the sake of being gross. Stupid just for the sake of being stupid. And full of juvenile sexual references just for the sake of showing off. Forget it, man.
November 30, 2013
The Fan Man has been in my top five list of favorite books since a brave sixth grade English teacher read it to us (saying, "beep! beeeeeeeeeeeep! beep! beep! beep! BEEP!" to edit out any words not any bad words the public school district might censure) as an example of "descriptive writing."
Since that time, I've owned three copies, because for some reason, people always end up jacking them.
The premise of the book is loosely the first-person account of Horse Badorties, just your average dude in the early seventies with a head full of acid and a PLAN.
The PLAN entails reciting fifteen year old chicks to join the Love Choir and bring about an elevated state of world peace and shared Nirvana by singing into battery-operated fans on national TV.
If you've ever wondered what it would feel like to have your face stolen, this is your book. Just plan on failing your pee test tomorrow.
Since that time, I've owned three copies, because for some reason, people always end up jacking them.
The premise of the book is loosely the first-person account of Horse Badorties, just your average dude in the early seventies with a head full of acid and a PLAN.
The PLAN entails reciting fifteen year old chicks to join the Love Choir and bring about an elevated state of world peace and shared Nirvana by singing into battery-operated fans on national TV.
If you've ever wondered what it would feel like to have your face stolen, this is your book. Just plan on failing your pee test tomorrow.
Read
April 5, 2020before the dude abode, the fan man abid. am i, man, grievously misconjugating the verb to abide? maybe, man, but it's in the service of a larger point about the lebowskian charm that's evinced here whenever the book manages to stay off the topic of women (& the puerto rican community for that matter). those parts, along with horse's schoolbus, shoulda been consigned to the swamps of nj. needs more artichoke smoking & check kiting, less recapitulation of the Man's own attitudes, man!
October 21, 2007
One of the funniest books I've ever read. If you don't laugh outloud, your brain is on novocaine, and you may be in worse shape than the stumbling bumbling anti-hero of this outrageous and brilliant farce. One thing for sure, if you read this book, you will never forget Horse Badorties.
May 9, 2008
Entertaining to read, akin to the style of Edward Abbey or other 60's pop/outsider writing. The main character is oddly sympathetic even though he seems to be a sociopath, maybe. His ultimate motives are creative, if handicapped by serious psychological problems compounded by drugs. Interesting portrait of a mind *not* functioning well, told from the perspective of that mind! Plus a goofy story.
November 14, 2007
Kontzwinkle crafts a hilarious, original character voice, and with it constructs a sustainable narrative. There's more to the Fan Man than Horse Badorties--perpetually stoned maestro of fifteen-year old chicks--lets on.
December 4, 2007
Best New York story ever written.
Every day should be Dorky Day.
Every day should be Dorky Day.
January 5, 2008
A stoner in New York is trying to develop his love chorus of 12 year old girls. Awesome.!
February 1, 2008
I have read this book every couple of years for the past 30 years
March 6, 2009
I was amazed at how much I rooted for H.P., to get it together and have a victory in his tilted life, so close.
September 5, 2011
hilarious, inspiring, awe-inspiring, perfect. like a mad rocket dancing its way toward the sun.
this book makes me want to write a novel.
this book makes me want to write a novel.
July 28, 2024
Bij het lezen van de eerste bladzijde, man, hadden we echt zo iets van wtf is dees, man. Maar plots, man, hadden we ook de tweede bladzijde gelezen en voor we het wisten was het boek uit en hadden we ons rot geamuseerd, man.
Horse Badorties is een hippie die leeft aan de zelfkant van de maatschappij. Hij woont in een appartement in New York dat tot aan de nok gevuld is met snuisterijen, afval, afwas en vergeten kleren en maaltijden. De huur van zijn appartement is best hoog, maar dat is geen probleem als je hem niet betaalt. Horse heeft als grote levensdoel het organiseren van een benefietconcert met een koor van 15-jarige meisjes en vult zijn dagen onder meer met het uitdelen van bladmuziek aan potentiële kandidates en het roken van de meest uiteenlopende kruiden. Badorties is er bovendien van overtuigd dat de kleine Japanse ventilator die hij overal met zich meesleurt, hem laat resoneren met het universum.
We vonden het ronduit hilarisch om helemaal meegesleurd te worden in de gedachtes en leefwereld van Horse Badorties - een beetje een voorloper van The Big Lebowski - al heeft Badorties ook meer tragische kantjes.
The Fan Man leest als een trein, is grappig en behoorlijk uniek. We kunnen ons best voorstellen dat niet iedereen er boodschap aan heeft, maar wij zijn blij dat we het gelezen hebben en houden er een grote glimlach onze leesherinnering aan over.
Horse Badorties is een hippie die leeft aan de zelfkant van de maatschappij. Hij woont in een appartement in New York dat tot aan de nok gevuld is met snuisterijen, afval, afwas en vergeten kleren en maaltijden. De huur van zijn appartement is best hoog, maar dat is geen probleem als je hem niet betaalt. Horse heeft als grote levensdoel het organiseren van een benefietconcert met een koor van 15-jarige meisjes en vult zijn dagen onder meer met het uitdelen van bladmuziek aan potentiële kandidates en het roken van de meest uiteenlopende kruiden. Badorties is er bovendien van overtuigd dat de kleine Japanse ventilator die hij overal met zich meesleurt, hem laat resoneren met het universum.
We vonden het ronduit hilarisch om helemaal meegesleurd te worden in de gedachtes en leefwereld van Horse Badorties - een beetje een voorloper van The Big Lebowski - al heeft Badorties ook meer tragische kantjes.
The Fan Man leest als een trein, is grappig en behoorlijk uniek. We kunnen ons best voorstellen dat niet iedereen er boodschap aan heeft, maar wij zijn blij dat we het gelezen hebben en houden er een grote glimlach onze leesherinnering aan over.
June 30, 2017
Horse Badorties ist ein Lebenskünstler mit Träumen, Plänen und einer Mission, für Mädels und Musik. Er stellt einen Liebeschor auf die Beine, der alte Kirchenmusik begleitet vom Summen von Fans (kleine Ventilatoren) singt. Diese Mission lässt ihn durch die Straßen New Yorks ziehen mit einem Beutel mit den Sachen "...die fürs Überleben auf der Straße wesentlich sind: Noten, Fan, Wecker und Tonbandgerät. Und nochn letzter Gegenstand, der in meinen Überlebensbeutel gepackt werden muß, ist Commander Schmocks koreanische Mütze mit den Ohrenklappen, falls ich unterwegs puertoricanische Musik zu hören bekomme." (p.11)
Der Ritter des Hot Dogs, der sich an den kleinen oder großen Sachen erfreut, wie dem Schirm von einem Hot-Dog-Stand: "Ich bin so glücklich, Mann, diesen Schirm zu haben, mit meinen Insignien drauf: zwei gekreuzte Hot Dogs auf nem Brötchen." (p.25) und den erfürchtiges Staunen und Demut befällt angesichts eines Schottplatzes. "Mann, ich such seit Jahren ne Luftschutzsirene, Mann!" (p.53)
Horse Badorties, der in seinen Appartments Müll ansammelt oder Aktionsmalerei betreibt, was natürlich in einem viel größeren Zusammenhang zu sehen ist. "Es is ein Teil meiner Arbeit als Avatar, herabsteigende Gottheit, des gesellschaftlichen Bewußtseins. Wenn du einmal versucht hast, ein Horse-Badorties-Appartment aufzuräumen, Mann, wird dich nie mehr was erschüttern. Du hast den Erhabenen Tod kennengelernt, Mann." (p.132)
"Fan Man" ist das liebste, verrückteste Buch mit dem liebsten, chaotischsten Romanhelden Horse Badorties oder dorkie dorkie... Durch ständiges Wiederholen von dorkie wird das Bewußtsein gereinigt und ein bißchen so wirkt dieses kleine Büchlein.
Der Ritter des Hot Dogs, der sich an den kleinen oder großen Sachen erfreut, wie dem Schirm von einem Hot-Dog-Stand: "Ich bin so glücklich, Mann, diesen Schirm zu haben, mit meinen Insignien drauf: zwei gekreuzte Hot Dogs auf nem Brötchen." (p.25) und den erfürchtiges Staunen und Demut befällt angesichts eines Schottplatzes. "Mann, ich such seit Jahren ne Luftschutzsirene, Mann!" (p.53)
Horse Badorties, der in seinen Appartments Müll ansammelt oder Aktionsmalerei betreibt, was natürlich in einem viel größeren Zusammenhang zu sehen ist. "Es is ein Teil meiner Arbeit als Avatar, herabsteigende Gottheit, des gesellschaftlichen Bewußtseins. Wenn du einmal versucht hast, ein Horse-Badorties-Appartment aufzuräumen, Mann, wird dich nie mehr was erschüttern. Du hast den Erhabenen Tod kennengelernt, Mann." (p.132)
"Fan Man" ist das liebste, verrückteste Buch mit dem liebsten, chaotischsten Romanhelden Horse Badorties oder dorkie dorkie... Durch ständiges Wiederholen von dorkie wird das Bewußtsein gereinigt und ein bißchen so wirkt dieses kleine Büchlein.
July 6, 2007
This book was really good, man. The main character, Horse Badorties, is a drugged out hippie with ADD, constantly smoking the 'healthful herb'. Follow him through the Village, the Lower East Side, The Bowery, Chinatown and Van Cortland Park in the Bronx, as he flows in constant synchronicity with the tao of life, following his crazed dreams one hundred percent. It was not very compelling, as any one page would tell you the story of the whole book. Not much plot, just a continual drug-induced brain patter. He also collects mountains of garbage in his 'pads' and calls it art, to which I can relate, as if he were a more perfect me.
December 10, 2009
An amazingly simple story of one man's dream. Now if only he could remember what that dream was.... Oh yeah it was chicks, it's been a long time since Horse Badorties got any chicks..... no it was the fans! The beautiful sound of the fan choir man.... no man, I need to get a sandwich, a hot-dog, some vegeterian food, some meat.... no I should lie here and get high.... no man! It was the chicks, man I want a chick. If you thought Fear and Loathing was a trip you aint seen nothing yet!!
July 28, 2007
If you have a well tuned sense of the absurd, you will love this book. I have read it two or three times, and the hapless, but completely sincere main character still makes me laugh out loud. William Kotzwinkle wrote the original novel on which the movie "E.T." was based, but this one is nothing like that! Forward to the tenth edition was written by Kurt Vonnegut.
October 5, 2007
The great thing about Kotzwinkle is that he tries a bunch of different stuff, making each novel completely different than the next in style and subject matter. Overall, this is a brilliant piece that makes you want to live your life more...spontaneously? It's hard to put down for more than a few minutes. And god forbid you should read it on dorky day.
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