New arrival from Moloko+:
Oliver Harris – One Shot: a Beat Generation Mystery
”If you only know one photograph of the Beat Generation, you know this one. It’s the single most famous picture of Burroughs, Ginsberg, and Kerouac. But who took it, when, where, and why? What are its secrets, and how can it be a crime scene? Whatever you think you know is almost certainly wrong, so to unravel its mysteries and find out where all the bodies are buried, follow in the footsteps of the world’s most dedicated Burroughs scholar as he applies his forensic sleuthing skills to the image that defined the Beat Generation. Always fascinating, sometimes funny, occasionally dark, and with a twist ending, ‘One Shot’ is a page-turner, a hybrid of detective fiction, personal memoir, and endlessly obsessive scholarship. Or as Harris himself puts it: ‘Depending how you look at it, this is either a triumphant tour de force, a virtuoso performance of scholarly ingenuity and passion, or an indulgent self-parody, a reductio ad absurdum of academic work. I like to think it’s hard to tell the difference”.
(from the blurb of this edition)