Atomik Aztex
By (Author) Sesshu Foster
City Lights Books
City Lights Books
1st July 2005
United States
General
Fiction
813.54
Paperback
224
Width 152mm, Height 203mm, Spine 15mm
311g
In the alternate universe of this glitteringly surreal novel, the Aztecs rule, having conquered the European invaders. Zenzontli, Keeper of the House of Darkness, is visited by visions of a parallel world run by the Europeans, where consumerism reigns supreme. Aztecs armed with automatic weapons, totemic powers, and blood sacrifice, conquer and colonise 1940s Europe. Atomik Aztex is a hilarious read, surprising and sometimes shocking. A potent concoction, with influences from graphic novels, along with Ishmael Reed's Mumbo Jumbo, the paranoia of Philip K. Dick and William Burroughs.
" a graphic, hilarious and violent chronicle of multiple realities that could emerge an amazing exercise of radical imagination."Guillermo Gmez-Pea
" this is an ambitious, energetic, and fiercely intelligent novel."Bookforum
"A fine example of alternative fiction with a strong social theme; recommended for most collections."Library Journal, January 2006
"Atomik Aztex is hip, bloody, occasionally baffling and often piercingly brilliant."Cherie Parker, Minneapolis Star Tribune, December 15, 2005
"Hilarious, poignant, and at times devastating, Foster has crafted a fine cocktail of sublime anarchy to toss into the machine."Rubn Martnez, author of The New Americans: Seven Families Journey to Another Country
"The prose is an electrifying, eclectic phantasmagoria of Groucho's marxism, dadada, surreal and naturalcombined with double-edged intellectual/historical hysteria."Rick Harsh, author of the Driftless Trilogy
"This is one mad neighborhood carnival roller coaster ride through Aztln, the underground, the QT Oddball, hilariousdeep."Marisela Norte, author of East L.A. Days/Fellini Nights
"A book so heedlessly imaginative it often seems ready to burst its pages like a comic-book POW."Emily Barton, Bookforum, December 2005
" puts his finger on a particular nexus of World War II-era racism, factory life and the landscape of Los Angeles"The Los Angeles Times, January 2006
Atomik Aztex was chosen the Winner of The Believer Magazine Book Award 2005!!The Believer Magazine, March 2006
Author of City Terrace Field Manual(Kaya Press, 1996), and Atomik Aztex (City Lights, 2005), Sesshu Foster teaches literature and composition in East L.A., where he grew up. His poetry has been published in numerous anthologies and journals. Invocation L.A.: Multicultural Urban Poetry, which he edited with Naomi Quinonez and Michelle Clinton, won a 1990 American Book Award.