Author Archives: VN Alexander

And now for a negative review of Locus Amoenus

goodreadsGoodReads, May 24, 2015

A young man tries to deal with conspiracy theories and the reality of how politics and governance work, having been brought up in a very sheltered, uninformed, but ‘healthy’ home. Written as a sort of retelling of Hamlet, but set in a small town in Massachusetts, Hamlet and his mother Gertrude create a new life for themselves after Gertrude’s husband is killed in the 9/11 terrorist attack. 8 years later Hamlet is unwilling to let his mom move on and remarry, and his dislike for Claudius, her new husband, becomes vicious once Hamlet runs into his old science teacher, Horatio, who has become an embittered conspiracy theorist.

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Locus Amoenus a coming of age story for the post 9/11 generation

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Victoria N. Alexander’s latest novel, Locus Amoenus, turns Shakespeare’s moody dark Hamlet (something is rotten in the state of Denmark) into a glib, manic 9/11 conspiracy theorist who discovers that something is very rotten in the United States of America. The 191-page novel was released at the end of June and hit #2 in Amazon’s dark humor category briefly in August while Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five held out at #1. The novel has been highly praised outside of truther circles for its originality and acerbic wit, taking on, not just the inexcusably lax 9/11 investigation, but also pointing out the disastrous consequences of federal top-down control, for example, farm subsidies and nutrition guidelines, pharmaceutical subsidies, standard curriculum, and the “jobs and security” provided by the weapons and intelligence industries. Mainstream reviewers, award-winning novelists, and other celebrated critics have favorably compared Alexander to James Joyce, Jonathan Swift, Thomas Pynchon, Lewis Carroll, Barbara Kingsolver, Vladimir Nobokov, and Don Delillo, as well as the bard himself. Could this be a breakthrough for the truth movement? Continue reading →

Locus Amoenus Book Discussion Guide

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Literary Fiction Book Review is offering a discussion guide for my novel. The guide is aimed at Young Adult fiction readers as well as the over twenty crowd.

Why select Locus Amoenus for your book club read?

  1. It’s funny and fast-paced
  2. Set in a typical small American town, many readers will relate to it
  3. It will engage readers in important debates
  4. Shakespeare’s fans will love the allusions
  5. Readers unfamiliar with the bard may be inspired to read his play

In this dark comedy, a 9/11 widow and her son, Hamlet, try to run a sustainable farm while their neighbors prefer the starchy products of industrial agriculture. Hamlet, now eighteen, suspects that something is rotten in the United States, where health, happiness, and freedom are traded for cheap Walmart goods, Paxil, endless war, standard curriculum, and environmental degradation. Then, on the 8th anniversary of his father’s death, Hamlet’s mother marries a bureaucrat named Claudius, and Horatio, a conspiracy theorist, arrives to tell him Claudius is a fraud. The deceptions, spying, and corruption ultimately lead, as in Shakespeare’s play, to tragedy. Though Alexander’s novella presents a dystopian picture, readers will laugh out loud at the familiar absurdity of life in America and will relish the lyrical and clever writing that makes Shakespeare’s themes contemporary.

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Get the discussion guide here.

Sept 12th Awakening Liberty Show with Sean Caron

awakeningVictoria N. Alexander talks with Sean Caron about Locus Amoenus live from 6PM – 9PM Pacific time (9PM-11PM Eastern).

In Locus Amoenus, a 9/11 widow remarries and her son, Hamlet, learns from Horatio, a conspiracy theorist, that something is rotten in the United States of America. 

Now archived at http://www.awakeninglibertyshow.com/show-archives/

 

 

Introduction by Colin Harrington at The BookStore Lenox, Mass

thebookstoreIt’s ironic if you move to the bucolic quiet of natural surroundings of say, upstate New York, you may be out of the grit and hustle of the city but you may also find yourself in the midst of what America really looks like. The struggle for the Good Life begins again with wholly new challenges.

Ironically you will again be gaping aghast at material obsession and driven spending on poisonous foods and crappy stuff nobody should even want. The conspiracy reaches into the countryside, i-phone-dazed and texting people who are across the street, where nobody votes because the real choice is between Coke and Pepsi or Ford and Chevy, and the bureaucrats right next door are somehow sneaking closer and closer to what you do and say, or that the kids are getting bullied by Core Educational mandates and standardized testing that will determine their Continue reading →