Wednesday, July 11 - Jim Krusoe

Tonight at 8 o’clock on KPFK:  JIM KRUSOE.  I’m happy to welcome back tonight’s guest to Studio C, where he would always be welcome, even if he hadn’t produced another terrific novel.  Krusoe has been hailed as among the foremost creators of surreal Americana, a master of deadpan absurdism.  He is also a mentor to many writers, and a booster in particular of Southern California short story writers and novelists, many of whom have participated in his Santa Monica College creative writing workshops.  After the critically-acclaimed Resurrection Trilogy: Girl Factory, Erased, and Toward You, Krusoe arrives with a new novel, Parsifal, about another confused Everyman with a profession built on minimum relevance to the modern world and maximum relevance to the symbolic.  He is a fountain pen repairman with a vigorous love life involving extremely willing librarians, a scar, a past buried in the woods, all against the environmental catastrophe that is earth vs. sky, nature vs. industry, conscious life vs. something bigger.  Naturally, Parsifal, the title character is, as his epic poem namesake, compelled to go on a journey, to identity, discovery, love.  Jim Krusoe is author of many collections of poetry, of a short story collection, Blood Lake, and four previous novels.  Thanks for listening, on the radio or online, and downloadable free from the station’s archives for 90 days, thanks to Ali Lexa at KPFK.